Paper short abstract:

In this ethnography of reproductive health policy change in post-conflict South Sudan, we examine how ethnic movements and global humanitarian actors configure family planning and abortion in relation to the idea of the nation and the societal tension elicited when their discourses compete.

Paper long abstract:

The expansion of public health policy and services, including for reproductive health, is an integral part of post-conflict nation-building and efforts to establish state legitimacy. Family planning and abortion are particularly poignant sites for the enactment of reproductive identity negotiation, policing and conflict. Through an analysis of policy discourses in post-conflict South Sudan, this paper explores ethnographically how reproduction is configured in relation to the idea of the nation. We draw on document review, observations of the media and policy environment and interviews conducted with 54 key informants between 2013 and 2015. Reproductive health discourses have been actively shaped by two rapidly evolving institutions - ethnic movements and global humanitarian actors - in ways that appeal differently to South Sudanese peoples' aspirations to live in a country of their own making. During the civil war, the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement mobilised customary pro-natalist ideals for military gain by entreating women to amplify reproduction to replace those lost to war and rejecting family planning and abortion. International donors and the Ministry of Health have re-conceptualised such services as among other modern developments denied by war. Tensions between these competing discourses have given rise to a range of societal responses, including disagreements that erupt in legal battles, heated debate, violence towards women and health workers and intra-communal conflicts in United Nations camps. In a context where modern contraceptives and abortion services are largely unfamiliar, conflict around South Sudan's nation-building project is partially manifest through tensions and violence in the domain of reproduction.