Trans/forming Pregnancy

It is often assumed that only cis women experience pregnancy. This fails to account for the trans and nonbinary people who are and have been pregnant, and therefore presents a partial picture of what pregnancy is, how pregnancy is experienced, and the conceptual and normative issues that surround having a pregnancy. In this article we argue for rethinking pregnancy and re-envisioning conceptual, social, medical, and legal approaches to pregnant persons by focussing on trans experiences, thereby trans/forming pregnancy. We highlight the ‘genderfication’ that permeates dominant formulations of pregnancy, which often implicitly or explicitly endorse a biological essentialism that takes birth-giving as necessary and sufficient for motherhood. We look in depth at the United Kingdom, but take our analysis to have far wider applicability and implications. Our aim is to trans/form philosophical approaches to gender and reproduction and contribute to practical guidance built from empirical and theoretical research, looking for positive outcomes for trans individuals who experience pregnancy. We take trans pregnancy seriously, on its own terms, arguing that doing so is both a theoretical and ethical imperative.