Keyword Presentation–Reproductive Justice

Together in Chicago in 1994, Toni M. Bond Leonard, Reverend Alma Crawford, Evelyn S. Field, Terri James, Bisola Marignay, Cassandra McConnell, Cynthia Newbille, Loretta J. Ross, Elizabeth Terry, “Able” Mable Thomas, Winnette P. Willis, and Kim Youngblood–a group named the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, coined the term “reproductive justice” when they “recognized that the women’s rights movement, led by and representing middle class and wealthy white women, could not defend the needs of women of color and other marginalized women and trans* people” (Sister Song). Addressing the need for intersectionality, the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice–by joining together reproductive rights with social justice–“repositioned reproductive rights in a political context of intersecting race, gender, and class oppressions” (Roberts). They created both a political/social movement as well as a framework for thought and action regarding reproduction. 

There are four primary tenets of reproductive justice: 1) the right to have a child; 2) the right to not have a child; 3) the right to parent children in environments that are safe and healthy with access to community resources; and 4) the right to sexual/bodily autonomy. Some other key concepts are the belief that reproductive justice is a human right and shifting the focus from choice to access.

This is explored in Loretta J. Ross (mentioned above) and Ricki Solinger’s co-authored book Reproductive Justice: An Introduction. Reproductive Justice was published in 2017 as part of a book series from the University of California Press–Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the Twenty-First Century. Focusing on intersections of race, gender, and class, Ross and Solinger create a comprehensive, and easily digestible, “beginner’s” guide to reproductive justice and illustrate the distinct differences between it and pro-choice/anti-abortion rhetoric.

There are many connections between Reproductive Justice–both Ross and Solinger’s book and the framework/political movement–and course content. The two texts that I found the most obvious links to are Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins” and Angela Davis’s Freedom is a Constant Struggle. As discussed previously, reproductive justice was born out of the need for intersectionality–the demand to view issues and needed resources through lenses other than that of upper and middle-class white women. This was especially evident in Ross and Solinger’s first chapter which traces the history of reproduction rights and justice in the U.S. One example is when they discussed the rhetoric of choice in Roe v. Wade, and how it pushed the focus on a woman’s right to prevent and terminate unwanted pregnancies while “ignor[ing] the other side of the coin: the right to reproduce and to be a mother, a crucial concern of women whose reproductive capacity and maternity had been variously degraded across American history” (48).  In addition to intersectionality, Ross and Solinger also highlight a connection to abolition. They state, “the reproductive justice/human rights framework makes claims on the incarceration system, the immigration system, and the health care system” (Ross & Solinger, 17). In her article “Reproductive Justice, Not Just Rights”, scholar and activist Dorothy Roberts states in agreement that “true reproductive freedom requires a living wage, universal health care, and the abolition of prisons” (Roberts).

My exploration sparked inquisition. What does reproductive justice look like to me? Why shift the focus to access? 

Thinking about focusing on access rather than choice, Ross and Solinger state “Women of color activists began to point out in the 1970s and 1980s that only women who could afford to enter the marketplaces of choices—motherhood, abortion, and adoption, for example—had access to this zone. Women without resources could not exercise choice in the same way” (47). Roberts also addresses this in her aforementioned article stating that the “mainstream” movement’s rhetoric surrounding choice has “privileged predominantly white middle-class women who have the ability to choose from reproductive options that are unavailable to poor and low-income women, especially women of color”. She also discusses how this rhetoric has affected resources like state support–if there are multiple choices, then any struggle or hardship must be the repercussions of making a “bad” choice. 

Works Cited

Roberts, Dorothy. “Reproductive Justice, Not Just Rights.” Dissent Magazine, 2015, https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/reproductive-justice-not-just-rights. 

Ross, Loretta J., and Rickie Solinger. Reproductive Justice: An Introduction. University of California Press, 2017. Sister Song. “Reproductive Justice.” Sister Song, https://www.sistersong.net/reproductive-justice.