Contraceptive Futures? The Hormonal Body, Populationism and Reproductive Justice in the Face of Climate Change

Hormonal contraceptives are complicated reproductive technologies – both biologically and socially. Deeply embedded in global political-economic agendas and historically underpinned by eugenic movements, hormonal contraceptives have a social life often beyond their intended or imagined uses. Because so much of the discussion around contraceptives focuses on their complex history and volatile present, there has been minimal space to talk about the future of hormonal contraceptives. In this chapter I show that while the past and present are complex, the future is even more so!

As the threat of climate change becomes more palpable, two key anxieties (re)surface. First, a fear around growing populations in the Global South (while in reality Total Fertility Rate (TFRs) are in decline) and second, that of a hormonal body out of sync in the face of environmental changes. Similar anxieties have historically mobilised draconian ‘family planning’ measures in countries (like India) in the first instance. And in the second instance, hormonal manipulations to find ‘balance’ in the body, as opposed to balancing (or coming to a reckoning with) contemporary environments with/in which the body exists.

This chapter is an attempt to bring to the fore the importance of studying hormonal contraceptives in environmentally unstable times. To imagine a space beyond coercion or ‘choice’ as variously imagined, when it comes to reproductive justice vis-à-vis hormonal contraception. I suggest that, just as contraceptives have allowed us access to conversations about both women's autonomy and reproductive control, they now allow us to unpack the limits and potentials of hormonal management via the hormonal contraceptive pill.