Reproductive Injustice as Social Sin: Mapping Sin Discourse into Debates about Fertility Decisions

Abstract

Seeking reproductive justice necessitates moving beyond categorizing individual sins for confession to instead begin analyzing how sin-talk functions to shape our moral-theological imaginations. Accurately naming reproductive injustices and advocating for reproductive justice require more comprehensive attention to the various sins underlying reproductive injustice. Therefore, the theological work around reproductive injustice includes re-thinking sin-talk. Specifically, it involves naming as concretely as possible the intersecting network of communal sins influencing individual moral decisions. This essay uses scriptural metaphors for sin and contemporary theologians’ writings on complicity in social sin to explore communal contributions to reproductive injustice. Ultimately, it argues for the need to develop communal examinations of conscience.