Lesbians and Reproductive Healthcare

This chapter explores the implications of choosing to parent outside heteronormative parameters. Drawing on interviews with 68 lesbian parents in Sweden and Ireland, the practical challenges facing lesbians embarking on parenthood are examined. Lesbians faced numerous difficulties in accessing reproductive health care services. They often struggled to find a known donor and only those with sufficient financial resources could travel abroad for donor insemination at a clinic. The transnational networks that develop for lesbians seeking fertility services abroad are explored. It is argued that prevailing theories of sexual citizenship fail to take sufficient account of gender in relation to biopolitics.