Governance of Kinship and Reproduction in an Era of Advanced Reproductive Technology

States have historically claimed the right to govern kinship and reproduction through laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, contraception, and abortion, among others. More recently, states have struggled to keep up with scientific advances in assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Access to ART has the potential to enable people to have biological children they otherwise could not. This paper provides a cross national overview of how states regulate ART, focusing on laws related to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and gestational surrogacy. We show that there is great variation in whether and how states legislate these issues, and that this variation is associated with cultural values and women’s political empowerment. We present four case studies of how state action limits access to ART for all or some of their citizens.