Parenting the Nation: State Violence and Reproduction in Nicaragua and Sweden

Reproduction is a core question for the state, a site of struggle between the reproduction of the nation and the reproduction of liveable lives, especially for those citizens whose rights are rarely recognized in the first place. What role does the exceptionalisation of reproductive rights play in the reproduction of the nation-state? Nicaragua and Sweden are countries where debates about reproductive justice highlight tensions in the projection of a state that cares for its citizens. Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Western hemisphere with one of the most repressive and punitive legislations on abortion in the world. Sweden with its reputation as a pioneering nation in matters of gender equality and reproductive justice. This chapter draws on a particular formulation of the centrality of the state in theories and practices of reproductive justice: the notion of the state as a parent with a particular responsibility to protect and foster, but also discipline and subjugate, its citizens. Political leaders, Fathers and Mothers of the Nation, form the discourse within which the state regulates its imagined children’s, the citizens, reproductive rights. As such the governance of reproduction is a vital aspect of the political fantasy about the nation-state and its futuriority.