(Un)recognisable Parents-to-Be: Reproductive Governance in Queer Family-Making via Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Denmark.

Authors

Tobias Sønderby Jørgensen

Published in

Sociology of health & illness. Volume 48. Issue 6. Pages e70228.

Abstract

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) offer parenthood to queer individuals and fulfil their reproductive desires. However, accessing ART services often connects queer people to healthcare institutions that cause discomfort and violence within their community. Few studies have examined how the opportunities and adversities of healthcare services affect queer individuals' experiences within ART clinics. I analysed 25 in-depth interviews with transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer individuals and gay men to assess how queer parents-to-be navigate family-making within ART clinics. Using a framework of reproductive governance and frames of recognisability, I found that reproductive governance shapes and polices access to ART services. Specific bodies and family structures are produced as recognisable prospective parents through frames of recognisability. Gestating bodies, reproductive subjects and family structures become reproductive governance sites that control access to ART services for queer people. Consequently, queer people engage in practices of staying recognisable to access ART services. I discuss how capacities to remain recognisable and access ART services are unequally distributed within the queer community and how participants' navigation of institutional expectations entails moments of queering and conforming to heteronormative ideals of family-making.

PMID:
42472460
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 20 Jul 2026.

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