2011] A Nigerian Perspective on Courts & Reproductive Health Rights 125 * Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University; McArthur Fellow, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto; Formerly, Research Associate, AIDS and Human Rights Research Unit, (Centre for Human Rights and Centre for the Study of AIDS) Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. Email:< Femiodunsi2002@yahoo.com> ** McArthur Fellow, University of Toronto. Email: <folakeolaleye1967@yahoo.com>. 1. ACLU (AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION), REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN THE COURTS (2009), available online at <http://72.3.233.244/reproductiverights/38611res20090202.html>, (accessed on 13 October 2009) (emphasis added). COURTS AND THE NEED FOR DYNAMISM IN THE PROMOTION OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS: A NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE Babafemi Odunsi * & Folake Olaleye ** ABSTRACT Courts have played, and can always play important roles in the protection, fulfillment and respect of reproductive health rights as a genre of human rights. In their roles of judicial law-making, courts can ingeniously and pragmatically adapt existing legal provisions to address emerging or novel reproductive health matters, without waiting for legislative interventions. Along this axis, in entrenching the rights of women to terminate unwanted pregnancies, the widely reported American case of Roe v Wade offers a remarkable illustration of how courts can courageously and creatively advance the frontiers of reproductive health rights. However, failure of courts to be dynamic in approach can suppress reproductive health rights, especially where there are no clear-cut legislative provisions affirming the guarantee of reproductive health rights, as is the case in Nigeria. Against this background, this article flags the need for dynamism on the part of Nigerian courts in engaging reproductive health rights issues. I. INTRODUCTION While we celebrate the promise of a new administration that understands the importance of reproductive health care in women’s lives and the role of government in ensuring access to care, we know that the courts continue to be an important avenue for restoring and protecting reproductive freedom. 1 Reproductive health rights, as human rights, consist of two main components-individual freedoms and social entitlements. Realization of these components depends on