Constitutions typically say little about pregnancy. Yet, they are deeply implicated in regulating it. How should pregnancy be constituted, or given legal form, within otherwise-silent constitutional texts?  Presenting a first-of-its-kind review of reproductive rights in India, Constituting Pregnancy argues that pregnancy ought to be constituted by reading the rights to privacy and equality in synthesis. This renders boundaries between the rights permeable to facilitate their dynamic interaction, making reproductive rights wider in scope and narrower in limits. Globally, reproductive rights are under scrutiny for doing too little to protect pregnant people, and paradoxically, too much. Opposition to these rights has taken the strange form of deploying interests commonly used to protect them – life, health and equality – to now detract from them. Through a synthesis-based reading of reproductive rights, this book proposes a new jurisprudential technique to better anchor these rights within constitutions.

‘Gauri Pillai has written a highly compelling book on how pregnancy is or could be framed in Indian constitutional law, with insightful comparisons with other constitutional orders. Each chapter delivers on how synergies between equality and privacy rights can be more meaningfully engaged in favor of improved reproductive agency. Meticulously researched and cogently written, Constituting Pregnancy is a most rewarding read.'

Rebecca J. Cook - University of Toronto

‘This timely book makes a critical intervention in the field. Pillai shows how constitutions increasingly address reproductive claims even when textually silent on pregnancy. Taking India as its focus, its compelling framework for ‘constituting pregnancy' reveals how privacy and equality shape legal doctrine and can underpin constitutional dimensions of reproductive justice in fresh and important ways.'

Fiona de Londras - Barber Professor of Jurisprudence, Birmingham Law School

Constituting Pregnancy advances a deeply researched and rigorously argued thesis on how the Indian Constitution regulates-and ought to regulate-pregnancy. It also offers a sophisticated analysis of the mechanics of rights adjudication in India. Pillai's work is at once a vital intervention in Indian and global legal advocacy for reproductive justice, and a scholarly tour-de-force on Indian constitutional law. It is essential reading for reproductive justice advocates and for constitutional lawyers alike.

Aparna Chandra - Professor of Law and M. K. Nambyar Chair on Constitutional Law, National Law School of India University