ABSTRACT
‘Pro-natalism’ is a term that has been variously used to describe any and all government policies that favor birth, babies, children, families, and population growth, as well as more focused laws that incentivize childbirth; burden, ban, or criminalize abortion and/or contraception; and otherwise disfavor the childless. Whether and to what extent US law is or should be pro-natalist is central to current and ongoing debates about reproductive rights and the deeply vexed question of when life begins. A robust legal feminist literature has aimed to identify and critique pro-natalist law and policy, particularly in forms that constrain the autonomy of those who may become pregnant. Some such laws may even amount to compulsory maternity. This literature has also explored the relationship between pro-natalism and gender- and sex-based inequality more broadly.
This Article breaks new ground by identifying pro-natalism in a completely different area of law: the law of decedent’s estates. Rather than incentivizing reproduction as such, pro-natalism in probate law undermines autonomy through rules that privilege and naturalize the parent-child relationship as the proper site of post-mortem property transfer …
Kemker, Diane, Pro-Natalism in Probate Law (March 13, 2024).
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