Barriers to trans reproduction in Norway: whose fertility matters?

Abstract Over the last 10 years, more jurisdictions have abolished sterilization requirements and introduced legal gender recognition based on self-declaration. The change significantly improves trans people’s opportunities to establish families with children. However, how do jurisdictions, like Norway, which have introduced legal gender recognition based on self-declaration, govern fertility for those whose fertility was long-undesired? The article explores this overall question by analyzing the Norwegian Biotechnology Act, which regulates the use of medically assisted reproduction. It is asked whether trans people and, in particular, trans people with amended legal gender, have access to medically assisted reproduction. Furthermore, it is asked on what conceptions of gender and reproduction the Biotechnology Act is based and, whether trans reproduction challenges the foundation of family law broadly understood. It is argued that the Norwegian Biotechnology Act restricts trans reproduction in various ways: (i) the Act’s gender-specific wording establishes legal barriers and implicit and enforced prohibitions on access to treatment, and (ii) the Act, alongside its application, creates social barriers to accessing treatment. Considering the Biotechnology Act, the law largely sees gender as biological, defined by distinct reproductive capacities, and as binary and unchangeable.