IRRESPONSIBLE REPRODUCTION

A prominent target of recent calls to restore personal responsibility through changes in law and public policy is ''irresponsible'' reproduc tion: a cluster of reproductive behaviors and choices including ''ille gitimacy,'' single-parent families, divorce, abortion, and adolescent sexual activity and parenthood. In this Article, Professor McClain cri tically evaluates the rhetoric of irresponsible reproduction. She iden tifies three paradigmatic models of irresponsibility-the single mother , the welfare mother, and the teen mother-and the three corresponding aspects of irresponsibility-immorality, unaccountability, and incapaci ty. Focusing upon the recent national debates over welfare reform, she argues that the rhetoric of irresponsible reproduction cannot serve a s an adequate basis for a serious public conversation about reproducti on and responsibility because it relies upon reductive models of the i ncentive effects of governmental programs and reflects a problematic g ender ideology and troublesome stereotypes about people in poverty. Sh e points to the tension between efforts to deter ''illegitimacy'' thro ugh such measures as ''family caps'' and efforts to encourage childbir th over abortion through restriction of public funding and other steer ing mechanisms as illustrative of the conflicting messages that the go vernment sends concerning irresponsibility and of the difficulty of ag reeing upon the appropriate means to promote the goal of responsibilit y. She furthers argues that the rhetoric of personal responsibility ob scures issues of collective responsibility for poverty and the care of children. Finally, Professor McClain contends that feminist analysis of concepts of responsibility and irresponsibility in the context of w omen's reproductive and mothering experiences would enrich public conv ersation about whether and how law and public policy should foster rep roductive responsibility. She draws on feminist legal theory to highli ght missing dimensions in the current rhetoric of procreative irrespon sibility and to offer a continuum model of agency and responsibility a s a framework for analyzing reproduction and responsibility.