December 2017, Marrakech, Morocco

CREA identified the need for a convening that critiques the meanings and implications of anti-gender and anti-rights politics from a feminist perspective. Globally, the trend across national and cultural contexts has been to endow the fetus with rights and social meanings separate from – and often more valued – than those of women. The global dialogue used the construct of “fetal rights” or “fetal personhood” as a lens through which to examine how anti-gender politics works in practice to deny women’s rights. Specifically the assertion of fetal rights in opposition to, and more deserving than, the rights of women was critically examined through the way language is constructed, cultural representations, and law and policy.