Rethinking Women's Bodily Autonomy in Nigerian Healthcare: A Feminist Legal Theory Analysis

Healthcare autonomy, the inherent right of adults with capacity to make informed choices about their own medical decisions represents a fundamental principle of contemporary medical law and bioethics. For women in Nigeria, this right is never exercised in isolation as it is often shaped by family dynamics, community expectations and economic constraints. This paper examines bodily healthcare autonomy for women in Nigeria via a feminist legal theory lens. It posits that existing liberal autonomy frameworks embedded in Nigerian healthcare law inadequately protect women's healthcare self-determination as this framework, while appearing universal and protective, embody distinctly masculine assumptions about personhood and decision-making. The paper proposes the relational autonomy theory to Nigerian healthcare contexts, arguing that protecting women's healthcare autonomy requires not only gender-neutral consent laws but gender-responsive frameworks implementing affirmative measures to address structural barriers and economic constraints for Nigerian women