Ectogestation as emancipation: A feminist science fiction

This chapter engages with the debate on whether ectogestation could lead to gender equality, or whether the technology would become oppressive when developed within our current society. Considering the systems of reproductive governance currently operating worldwide, ectogestation is unlikely to have an emancipatory impact were it to be developed in this context. However, this chapter puts forward the argument that the notion of ectogestation as emancipatory should be retained as a feminist science fiction project, which can help us think through broader social transformations in line with Shulamith Firestone's original manifesto for the artificial womb. Looking to the concept of ‘utopia as method’, this chapter considers what it would mean to take up Firestone's call to seize the means of reproduction and reclaim ectogestation's emancipatory potential if it were to be developed in our time. This chapter considers the feminist self-help movements, historic and current, to provide access to abortion where it is criminalised or restricted, as a blueprint for self-managed ectogestation.