Developments in judicial approaches to sexual and reproductive health

This article reviews the jurisprudence on reproductive and sexual health of national and international tribunals. This review reveals a shift from controlling reproduction and sexuality through the use of criminal law to impose a moral order, to the use of administrative law to ensure availability of safe and effective services, and, finally, to the use of human rights to promote respect for human dignity. The conventional use of criminal law to prohibit provision of reproductive and sexual health services, underage sex, and relations between same-sex partners is waning. Due in part to research showing how criminal law harms reproductive health, an emerging judicial trend is toward the more pragmatic use of law to reduce the harm to health associated with sexuality and reproduction. Most recently, courts are recognizing that respect for individuals' needs to protect their reproductive and sexual health is a matter of social justice.