Human Rights and the Politics of Risk and Blame: Lessons from the International Reproductive Health Movement

This article examines criticisms advanced by public health professionals that public health has become too "politicized". The author argues that epidemiological concepts of risk are routinely used in the legal and political systems to apportion blame and responsibility for poor health. This article uses the example of reproductive health and rights to argue that new understandings of the connection between socioeconomic conditions and poor health will only generate change when they are reframed into political claims and pressed by social movements. In this regard, the author notes that human rights language, principles, and practice hold great potential for the U.S. reproductive rights movement, which has sometimes been constrained by the narrow scope of court rulings. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - Overview, International - North America]