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134-546: Reproductive justice is "the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities," according to SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective , the first organization founded to build a reproductive justice movement. In 1997, 16 women-of-color-led organizations representing four communities of color – Native American, Latin American, African American, and Asian American – launched

268-688: A 501(c)(3) nonprofit . In 2007 the collective officially changed its name to SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and purchased The Motherhouse in Atlanta, the historic first home of the National Black Women's Health Project, which remains the organization's headquarters today. SisterSong is strategically sited in the Deep South because they feel that this is where the rights of women of color are most threatened. In 2012, National Coordinator Loretta Ross decided to return to her roots as

402-849: A B.A. and a J.D. (1979) from the University of Maryland and a masters in judicial studies from Stanford . West came to Georgetown after teaching at the University of Maryland Law School from 1986 to 1991, and at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law from 1982 to 1985. West is best known for her work in the ethics of care and feminist legal theory . In her article "Jurisprudence and Gender," West argued that women’s socialisation prioritises connection and relationships over autonomy, making it difficult for them to respond to violence with violence, which ultimately hinders their ability to prove lack of consent in legal contexts designed by and for men. This American law–related biographical article

536-560: A Black woman who fired a gun in the air to defend her family by scaring off an abusive partner. SisterSong published articles that called this as a reproductive justice issue, saying that Alexander was imprisoned and separated from her children as punishment for defending herself and them from an abuser. SisterSong and the Free Marissa Now Campaign hosted a two-day summit on racism within the criminal justice system, domestic violence, and Southern reproductive justice. They also hosted

670-488: A Program Officer at the Ford Foundation's Reproductive Health Program, and Luz Rodriguez , then executive director of Latina Roundtable on Health and Reproductive Rights. The purpose of these gatherings was to convene women of color reproductive health educators, activists, and policymakers to identify the key challenges grassroots organizations of color were experiencing in reproductive health work. Attendees decided to use

804-465: A benefit concert for Alexander and a march and rally with over 200 people at the Duval County Courthouse. By showing how racial bias in the criminal justice system impacts women, children, and families, this work linked reproductive justice with Black Lives Matter . In 2015, Trust Black Women followed up on this connection by publishing a statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter. It

938-762: A bigger issue in the United States. Sexual coercion has become a national problem. In 2014, there was research done by Susan Leahy that focuses on nonviolent nonconsensual sexual assault. Black women are victimized at an alarmingly higher rate than their counterparts. "17 percent of black women experienced some form of sexual coercion by their domestic partners. This has been a known issue since The Civil Rights, which women used this spotlight to fight for their rights over their bodies and fight against sexual misconduct against them. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective The SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective , also known as SisterSong ,

1072-577: A coalition of multiracial groups to use SisterSong's billboard strategies to successfully take down anti-abortion billboards in Oakland, California. Trust Black Women is still in operation as a national alliance of black-women-led organizations. They say that they use communications and events to combat stereotype, amplify black women's voices, organize with black women and allies for black women's rights, and connect black women with holistic care methods and resources. Still led by SisterSong, they also partner with

1206-686: A conference sponsored by the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance and the Ms. Foundation for Women with the intention of creating a statement in response the Clinton administration's proposed plan for universal health care . The conference was intentionally planned just before the attendees would be going to the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, which reached the decision that

1340-456: A criticism of the Clinton health care plan . The women who created the reproductive justice framework were: Toni M. Bond Leonard , Reverend Alma Crawford, Evelyn S. Field, Terri James, Bisola Marignay, Cassandra McConnell, Cynthia Newbille, Loretta Ross , Elizabeth Terry, ' Able' Mable Thomas , Winnette P. Willis, and Kim Youngblood. The reproductive justice framework was developed in response to

1474-475: A dozen issues of Collective Voices, the first reproductive justice news magazine. In 2006, they debuted RJ 101 training to introduce people to the reproductive justice framework. Since then, they have added many other reproductive justice trainings. Many organizations, such as The Center For Reproductive Health Education in Family Medicine, draw from them. In 2015, SisterSong relaunched Collective Voices as

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1608-617: A eugenics conspiracy. The movement cites the high abortion rates among Black women and the presence of abortion clinics in predominantly Black neighborhoods as evidence. Its methods center on erecting billboards across the country with messages like "Black children are an endangered species" and "The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb." Reproductive justice advocates respond by showing that Black women have higher abortion rates because they have higher unplanned pregnancy rates due to factors like disparities in healthcare and sex education. The fertility rate among Black communities

1742-468: A feminist framework, praxis, and theory that counters the individualism of the mainstream reproductive health and rights movements. It was successfully used as a conceptual framework for activism and sexual and reproductive health programmes and interventions long before it was used as a theoretical frame for research. It can provide a profoundly social and deeply politicised analytical framework for empirical research on sexual and reproductive matters but there

1876-556: A free monthly webinar series with reproductive justice leaders talking about the intersections between reproductive justice and other topics. In 2004, SisterSong influenced the March for Choice to expand its agenda and become the March for Women's Lives ; it was the largest march in US history, with 1.2 million participants. Loretta Ross, who was to become SisterSong's leader the following year, co-directed

2010-416: A high school education. This is partially due to racial bias in the healthcare system; studies have found medical personnel less likely to believe black people's perceptions about their own pain, and many stories have surfaced of black women experiencing medical neglect within hospitals and dying from pregnancy complications that could have been treated. Researchers have also found that the stress of living as

2144-452: A human rights foundation that would require the state to ensure every person's access to free reproductive decision-making. Some women's studies scholars like Greta Gaard argue that "choice" is a "scheme of omission" which means that it leaves many women out of the conversation, particular women of color, immigrant women, queer women, transgender women, and so on. In this vein, SisterSong Women of Colour Reproductive Health Collective, one of

2278-529: A lack of available sex education and contraception. In addition, women from low income households are more likely to turn to unsafe abortion providers, and as a result, they are more likely to be hospitalized for complications related to the procedure than higher-income women are. Although abortion was made legal nationwide in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973, many obstacles to women's access remain. Young, low-income, LGBTQ, rural, and non-white women experience

2412-447: A lack of safety for providers and patients at abortion facilities, the conservative, anti-abortion political legislators and the citizens that support them, and a lack of qualified abortion providers, especially in rural states. Abortion access is especially challenging for women in prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers. Proponents of reproductive justice argue that withholding access to abortion in these facilities can be seen as

2546-477: A person is pressured, tricked, threatened or forced in a non-physical way , when it comes to domestic partners. Sexual coercion consists of, but is not limited, to: continuously asking for sexual favors until the desired answer is achieved, making a sexual partner think it is to late to change their mind, manipulation, threats that can jeopardize one's safety based on sexual preference or orientation, and stealthing . Sexual coercion between domestic partners has become

2680-468: A person of color in a racist society takes a toll on physical health, a phenomenon that has been coined weathering. The extra stresses of pregnancy and labor on a weathered body can have fatal consequences. Reproductive justice advocates assert the need to correct racial disparities in maternal health through systemic change within health care systems, and they also particularly advocate for access to midwifery model care. Midwifery care has strong roots in

2814-408: A racially unequal society. Margaret Sanger , a prominent contraceptive advocate and the first to coin the term "birth control" in the late nineteenth century, has been criticized for aligning with eugenicists in ways that perpetuated birth control as a method of population control. There are varying levels of agreement/disagreement with this criticism within the reproductive justice movement. In Killing

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2948-598: A reproductive justice issue by hosting the Standing Our Ground for Marissa Alexander Summit in Jacksonville, Florida. Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law helped white man George Zimmerman win his freedom after shooting and killing Black teenager Trayvon Martin because he was wearing a hoodie, and Zimmerman profiled him as threatening. Yet the Stand Your Ground law did not protect Marissa Alexander ,

3082-511: A rhetorical strategy to mobilize consensus. These narratives centralize women's stories and decision-making. Narratives relying on public memory of feminist movements link women's stories across time and space and help people to understand the movement's reasons for organizing. This facilitates personal connection with otherwise abstract policy decisions, and puts a human face on political issues. While feminist narratives emphasize women's stories and experiences, reproductive justice narratives focus on

3216-524: A scholar and thought leader working within academia. With Ross's exit, SisterSong shifted from the Management Circle model to a conventional Board of Directors model and named Monica Raye Simpson, then the organization's Development Director, as Interim Executive Director in 2012 and executive director in 2013. Monica Simpson had previously been the first staff person of color at Charlotte's Lesbian & Gay Community Center and won awards for organizing

3350-491: A second office in North Carolina, where there were previously no reproductive justice organizations. In February 2018, SisterSong began advocating for a review of a North Carolina Department of Public Safety policies that allows for pregnant inmates to be shackled to a hospital bed while in labor. The department later revised their policy to clearly define when wrist restraints must be removed. In 2019, SisterSong acted as

3484-524: A team of multiple identities with unique, individual experiences. Sites like the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League help to engage women with political activism. For example, some sites share petitions and links for voting/contacting political leaders so women can get involved despite their busy lives. Throughout the world, many people lack a quality understanding of sex education. According to The Pro-Choice Public Education Project,

3618-480: A violation of the 8th Amendment preventing cruel and unusual punishments. A survey presented in Contraception found a correlation between Republican -dominated state legislatures and severely restricted coverage for abortion. Many anti-abortion groups are actively working to chip away at abortion by enacting restrictions that prevent more and women from obtaining the procedure. The research concludes that full access

3752-622: Is a cross-movement collaboration of reproductive justice, economic justice , and LGBTQ rights groups. Robin West Robin West (born 1954) is the Frederick J. Haas Professor of Law and Philosophy emerita at the Georgetown University Law Center . West's research is primarily concerned with feminist legal theory , constitutional law and theory, philosophy of law , and the law and literature movement. West holds

3886-527: Is a national activist organization dedicated to reproductive justice for women of color . Headquartered in Atlanta , Georgia, SisterSong is a national membership organization with a focus on the Southern United States . They include and represent Indigenous, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, Arab and Middle Eastern, Latinx, and queer women and trans people. SisterSong says that they strive to center

4020-528: Is actually needed to prevent pregnancy. Although a few trial participants died, they were not autopsied to discover if the drug was related to their deaths. More recently, women of color, women with low incomes, women in conflict with the law, and women who have used illicit drugs have been coerced into using long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). Women have been given the choice between LARCs and jail, or have been told that they would lose their public benefits if they did not use LARCs. Medicaid has covered

4154-472: Is based on the international human rights framework, which views reproductive rights as human rights. The term reproductive justice combines reproductive rights and social justice . It was coined and formulated as an organizing framework by a group of Black women who came together for that purpose in 1994 and called themselves Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice. They gathered in Chicago for

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4288-420: Is believed to be a vital part of healthcare because "...induced abortion is among the most common medical procedures in the US...Nearly half of American women will have one or more in their lifetimes." These organizations point to studies that show that when access to abortion is prohibitive or difficult, abortions will inevitably be delayed, and performing an abortion 12 weeks or longer into the pregnancy increases

4422-489: Is both a tool and a result of systems of oppression based on race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, age and immigration status. This is reproductive oppression as we use the term. By establishing reproductive justice as a counter to this form of oppression, advocacy groups like ACRJ highlight the movement's focus on broadening the reproductive health and rights framework to include the impact of social relations and socioeconomic conditions. Reproductive justice sought to address

4556-476: Is far less clarity on how it should be applied. Scholars have recently begun to address this oversight, for example, Morison recently published a paper in which she aims to "offer concrete analytical strategies for applying Reproductive Justice theory and to stimulate further thinking and discussion regarding how the theory might be fruitfully and rigorously used in qualitative research in psychology". Early notions of women's liberation focused largely on freedom from

4690-676: Is not available in all settings, and correctional settings should increase the accessibility of services for women. Organizations that promote reproductive justice such as NOW and Planned Parenthood aim to provide increased access to safe abortions at a low cost and without external pressure. They advocate increasing insurance coverage for abortions, decreasing the stigma and danger attached to receiving an abortion, eliminating parental notification for teens, training more physicians and clinics to provide safe abortions, and creating awareness about abortion. Researchers have found that women of color face substantial racial disparities in birth outcomes. This

4824-413: Is not obligated to provide the means for women to realize their constitutionally protected rights, but only to refrain from putting any 'obstacles' in their 'path'". The reproductive justice movement seeks to secure women's reproductive rights by attempting to abolish the civil rights foundation created by Roe, which has not addressed issues of abortion access or reproductive oppression, and replace it with

4958-690: Is often harder for oppressed people to access healthcare due to factors such as education, income, geographic location, immigration status, and potential language barriers, among others. Loretta Ross, co-founder and National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005 to 2012, defines reproductive justice as a framework created by activist women of color to address how race, gender, class, ability, nationality, and sexuality intersect. Reproductive justice encompasses reproductive health and reproductive rights, while also using an intersectional analysis to emphasize and address

5092-534: Is often not covered by health insurance and therefore only accessible to wealthier people. Reproductive justice groups advocate for access to midwifery model care not only to correct racial disparities in birth outcomes, but because they believe that every woman has the human right to give birth in any way she wishes, including a home birth or a midwifery model birth at a birthing center or hospital. Reproductive justice also focuses on providing protection against sexual coercion , unwanted sexual activity that happens when

5226-464: Is the same as among white communities, showing that Black populations are not in decline. Abortion clinics are intentionally cited in low-income neighborhoods to increase access, and economic disparities mean that many of these neighborhoods are predominantly Black. Author Dorothy Roberts says: Black women's wombs are not the main enemy of black children ... Racism and sexism and poverty are the main enemy of black children. [The billboard] doesn't highlight

5360-418: Is therefore "based in the human right to make personal decisions about one's life, and the obligation of government and society to ensure that the conditions are suitable for implementing one's decisions". Thus, the focus is on structural and systemic changes that can support rights. When defining reproductive justice, activists often reference the concept intersectionality , a broader framework used to analyze

5494-404: Is worst for black women. For example, black women are 3–4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. While part of the issue is the prevalence of poverty and lack of healthcare access among women of color, researchers have found disparities across all economic classes. A black woman with an advanced degree is more likely to lose her baby than a white woman with less than

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5628-578: The Center for Reproductive Rights and National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health on a study about the high maternal mortality rates among Southern women of color, especially Black women. They wrote a shadow report that SisterSong presented to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination , which adopted all of the report's recommendations. SisterSong then spoke about

5762-494: The FDA , birth control pills were tested on Puerto Rican women who were not told they were participating in a clinical trial of little-tested medication, nor were they told about side effects that were occurring among their peers in the trial. Some women were not even told that the pills were meant to prevent pregnancy, and those who were told this were told it was 100% effective. Women in the trials were given doses ten times higher than what

5896-416: The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (at which international leaders would agree that the individual right to plan one's own family must be central to global development, rather than population control efforts), a group of black women gathered for a conference sponsored by the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance and the Ms. Foundation for Women. Their goal was to create a statement about

6030-793: The Unitarian Universalist Association of America , and the National Council of Jewish Women to engage in reproductive justice activism, and they have presented before the United Nations and state legislators and at the White House during the Obama administration. Their work in promoting reproductive justice has brought the concept to national politics: Hillary Clinton discussed reproductive during her presidential campaign in 2016, and Stacey Abrams mentioned it during her State of

6164-441: The "consent" for sterilization was obtained from women under distressing circumstances (i.e. during childbirth) or obtained without providing all of the necessary information regarding the sterilization. Other times, a woman's consent was not given, and the procedure was done when the woman thought she was receiving only a cesarean section. In many states, these sterilizations were publicly funded. Such sterilization efforts resulted in

6298-460: The Black Body, Author Dorothy Roberts asserts that Sanger ultimately contributed significantly in the fight for contraception access but did so in a way that often shifted the focus away from reproductive autonomy and utilized eugenic ideas that were prominent at the time. There is also a history of coercive promotion of birth control among women of color in the United States. Before their approval by

6432-641: The Black Mamas Matter Alliance, an independent nonprofit fiscally sponsored by SisterSong. In 2016, SisterSong launched the Artists United for RJ program to facilitate artists of color to create collaborative, replicable artwork to advance reproductive justice. Projects have included concerts that raise funds and/or awareness for reproductive justice issues and Autonomy, a play designed to travel to college campuses and introduce Black students to reproductive justice. In 2016, SisterSong opened

6566-577: The Black Women's Caucus, came together to form the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective in order to create a national movement for reproductive justice. Their website states that reproductive justice is a human right, is about access (not choice), and is about more than just abortion. They argue that reproductive justice can be achieved by examining power structures and intersectionality, joining across identities and issues, and putting

6700-481: The Clinton administration's proposed Universal Health Care plan . In the process, they coined "reproductive justice" as a combination of "reproductive rights" and "social justice." The women who created the reproductive justice framework were: Toni M. Bond Leonard, Reverend Alma Crawford, Evelyn S. Field, Terri James, Bisola Marignay, Cassandra McConnell, Cynthia Newbille, Loretta Ross , Elizabeth Terry, Mable Thomas , Winnette P. Willis, and Kim Youngblood. They launched

6834-676: The Groundswell Fund formed the Southern RJ Cohort, and SisterSong became its leader. By 2017, the Southern RJ Cohort had 13 organizational members from nine Southern states and focused on the Southern RJ Policy Initiative, which aimed to stop policies threatening reproductive justice and advance policies that would move reproductive justice forward in the South. In 2014, SisterSong expanded common perceptions of what constitutes

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6968-452: The ICPD to the United States' reproductive rights movement. They coined the term "reproductive justice," defining it at first as "reproductive health integrated into social justice" by using the moral, legal, and political language of human rights. In 1997, 16 organizations representing and led by Indigenous, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, and Latinx women, including women who had been involved in

7102-506: The Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance in Chicago. This caucus preceded the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that took place two months later and produced the Cairo Programme of Action , which identified reproductive health as a human right. After Cairo, the Black women promoting the reproductive justice framework sought to adapt the human rights framework outlined by

7236-668: The Movement for Black Lives to raise awareness of and address the intersectional oppressions black women face. In 2010, SisterSong launched the Southern RJ Network because they felt that reproductive freedom was especially under attack in the South, making collaboration among reproductive justice groups particularly critical across the region. The Southern RJ Network then helped defeat a fetal personhood bill in Mississippi. It paused for SisterSong's leadership transition in 2012. In 2013,

7370-560: The RJ Leadership Summit to convene the movement's leaders for insight sharing and movement-wide strategic planning. From 2006 to 2012, SisterSong partnered with Ipas and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to create and maintain a website mapping the sexual and reproductive laws in every US state to provide a tool for activists. They continue to lead online organizing online. From 2004 to 2012, SisterSong published over

7504-621: The Southeast Alliance for Reproductive Equity (SEARE) with SPARK Reproductive Justice Now, Healthy and Free TN, and Women's Rights Empowerment Network (WREN). This alliance uses the Collective Impact model to foster collaboration among reproductive justice, reproductive rights, and reproductive health groups throughout the South. Also in 2018, SisterSong co-founded a collaboration to combat religious exemption laws with Atlanta Jobs with Justice, Women Engaged, and Georgia Equality . This

7638-540: The Supreme Court, immense rhetorical power. Reproductive health often places power in the hands of doctors, medical professionals, and the ability to access clinics. In this view, rights and health both refer to power being given to the people from a top-down perspective. As a response, the term justice is meant to put power back into the hands of the people. Although distinct from pro-choice frameworks, reproductive justice advocates typically rely on narrative as

7772-543: The Trust Black Women partnership to change how the United States views black women by elevating black women's voices to eliminate stereotypes. The partnership was triggered by anti-abortion billboards in Atlanta targeting black women and calling black children "an endangered species". The billboard campaign was complemented by a documentary film, Maafa 21, which was distributed to black churches and organizations and claimed that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger

7906-613: The US after the international conferences ended. SisterSong was founded in 1997 by 16 women-of-color-led organizations representing African American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Latinx, and Indigenous women, the same populations represented in WOCCRHR. They received funding from the Ford Foundation . The organization emerged from a series of symposia in New York City and Savannah in 1997-1998 convened by Reena Marcelo, then

8040-561: The US provides more funding towards abstinence-only sex education programs rather than comprehensive sex education programs. From 1996 through 2007, the US Congress committed over $ 1.5 billion to abstinence-only programs . When funding is not provided towards comprehensive sex education, students are not taught about how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections from occurring. Advocates for Youth discusses how abstinence-only education programs are not effective at delaying

8174-535: The Union Rebuttal in 2019. In 2003, SisterSong hosted the first national conference on reproductive justice organized by women of color at Spelman College in Atlanta with over 600 attendees. They hosted their first Let's Talk About Sex Conference in 2007 to talk openly about sex in relation to reproductive justice organizing. They repeated the Let's Talk About Sex Conference in 2011 and 2017. In 2014, they also launched

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8308-541: The Victorian Era gender roles. These roles placed white women in the cult of domesticity, confining them to the expectations of motherhood and home-maker , void of any autonomy separate from their husbands or families. Women whose partners or family members are opposed to abortion tend to have a negative impact. It may cause women to not seek the care that they want and need, and cause women to seek care in unconventional ways. The feminine norms and restrictions did not apply

8442-488: The Women's Movement . This paper highlighted one of the biggest intersectional challenges Black women faced in their fight for reproductive rights. It explained how despite not being addressed in mainstream feminism's fight for reproductive freedom, forced sterilization is indeed an infringement on one's reproductive rights, and one that disproportionately affected black women over white women. Calling attention to this infringement on

8576-682: The ancient traditions of communities of color and is usually administered by fellow women, rather than doctors. Midwifery practitioners treat the individual as a whole person rather than an objectified body. Midwifery care involves trained professionals including midwives (who are medically trained to monitor and safeguard maternal, fetal, and infant health and deliver babies), doulas (who provide emotional and practical support and advocacy to mothers during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum, but do not have any medical training), and lactation consultants (who train and support mothers with lactation). Midwifery model care has been shown to improve birth outcomes, but

8710-612: The article and publicly recognize the leadership of women of color. Richards complied immediately. She also invited SisterSong to bring a group of reproductive justice leaders to discuss how Planned Parenthood could do more to support reproductive justice organizations. This led to Planned Parenthood providing funding for reproductive justice groups, honoring leaders of color in their annual 99 Dreamkeepers, engaging SisterSong to train them in reproductive justice and advise their strategic planning, and hosting their first reproductive justice conference in 2016. In 2014, SisterSong partnered with

8844-879: The balance of the Supreme Court became tilted against abortion rights, so bringing the abortion ban case to the Supreme Court could give it a chance to overturn Roe v. Wade , the 1972 decision that protects the legal right to abortion throughout the US. SisterSong is also involved in the Over the Counter Contraception Working Group and the All* Above All Campaign to repeal the Hyde Amendment , which prohibits federal funding from supporting abortion services, which means that women on public healthcare, federal employees, and others cannot receive healthcare coverage for abortions. In 2018, SisterSong co-founded

8978-491: The bill would have led to racial profiling and intrusive interrogation of black and Asian American women seeking abortions, and that it would have violated patient confidentiality and made providers afraid to provide services because they could be criminalized. SisterSong convened the Trust Black Women Partnership with nine black-women-led organizations to fight the billboards and abortion restriction bill, and

9112-736: The birth control movement contributed to intersectional challenges faced by women of color. They also resulted in a movement of Black people against Black women's choice to use birth control or abortion, rather than producing more Black babies to build the community. This effectively divided the Black community. The birth control movement essentially espoused the idea that women could attain freedom and equality by receiving legal access to family planning services, which could help lift them out of poverty. While this may have been partially true for white women who were free of racist or classist discrimination, black women faced many more barriers that were blocking their way to liberation, by nature of being Black in such

9246-399: The birth control movement in the United States alienated Black women in many ways. With mostly white leadership, advocates in this movement catered mainly to the needs of white women. Additionally, in the early 20th century, white nationalists spread the concept of " race suicide ", the fear that white women using birth control would reduce the number of white babies being born, thus limiting

9380-496: The civil rights-based, pro-choice framework centers on the legal right to choose abortions without addressing how socioeconomic status impacts the choices one has. Rickie Solinger said "the term rights often refers to the privileges or benefits a person is entitled to and can exercise without special resources," whereas the privacy framework established by Roe and interpreted by the Supreme Court in Maher v. Roe, holds that "the state

9514-554: The collective, SisterSong hosted its first national conference in November 2003 at Spelman College in Atlanta with over 600 women of color in attendance. SisterSong was a volunteer-run network until 2005, when they opened a national office in Atlanta and hired their first staff with funding from the Ford Foundation and the Moriah Fund. The first staff leader was Loretta Ross , who served as National Coordinator from 2005 to 2012. One of

9648-428: The concept as follows: Reproductive Justice is the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, economic, and social well-being of women and girls, and will be achieved when women and girls have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction for ourselves, our families, and our communities in all areas of our lives. Reproductive Justice

9782-426: The concept of reproductive justice, the framework gradually won increasing support and prominence in the discussion of women's rights and empowerment. The 2003 SisterSong National Women of Color Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights Conference popularized the term and identified the concept as "a unifying and popular framework" among the various organizations that attended. In 2004, Jael Silliman and coauthors published

9916-598: The decades since SisterSong's birth, the group has inspired and mentored the creation of dozens of women-of-color-led reproductive justice organizations across the country. Groups that promote women's rights such as the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood have increasingly adopted the language of reproductive justice in their advocacy work. The movement has increasingly entered mainstream spaces, as organizations such as Law Students for Reproductive Justice have arisen to promote women's human rights using

10050-416: The executive director of Planned Parenthood , talking about why the term "pro-choice" has been falling out of favor. The article did not mention that women of color have been leading the critique of this term since articulating reproductive justice in 1994. In response, SisterSong published an open letter to Planned Parenthood that was signed by 39 organizations and 24 individuals and asked Richards to correct

10184-500: The existing movements focused only on racial equality without addressing women's specific needs or only on gender equality without addressing Black women's specific needs. The committee to End Sterilization Abuse (CESA) was an organization formed in 1977 that was specifically dedicated to addressing the forced sterilization of Black women in the US. CESA created a "working paper" that essentially served as an open letter to mainstream feminist activists called Sterilization Abuse: A task for

10318-430: The failure to consider the differences among women, based on their social location (class, race, disability etc.) and how these delimit the "choices" available to them. The founders of reproductive justice saw that despite having the legal access to options such as abortion, they were not able to exercise reproductive choices as easily as their more privileged White, middle-class counterparts. For them, reproductive politics

10452-467: The first Black Gay Pride in the Bible Belt. She remains SisterSong's Executive Director today. In 2014, SisterSong selected four strategic priority areas: In 2016, SisterSong opened a second office in North Carolina focused on building a state-based reproductive justice movement there. As the first reproductive justice organization, SisterSong has inspired or mentored many of its successors. SisterSong

10586-525: The first book on reproductive justice, Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice. Moving forward, reproductive justice groups modeled some of their rhetoric after Dr. George Tiller , a late-term abortion provider who was assassinated in his church in Wichita, Kansas, in 2009. He coined the phrase "Trust Women", which was used to promote abortion rights by arguing that women should be trusted to make their own decisions. "Trust Women" became

10720-433: The focus to reproductive oppression – the control and exploitation of women, girls, and individuals through our bodies, sexuality, labor, and reproduction – rather than a narrow focus on protecting the legal right to abortion, [we are] developing a more inclusive vision of how to build a new movement. As indicated above, the reproductive justice movement is defined in part by its opposition to "reproductive oppression", which

10854-462: The founding coalitions, argued: One of the key problems addressed by reproductive justice is the isolation of abortion from other social justice issues that concern communities of color: issues of economic justice, the environment, immigrants' rights, disability rights, discrimination based on race and sexual orientation, and a host of other community-centered concerns. These issues directly affect an individual woman's decision-making process. By shifting

10988-494: The framework strives to center the needs and leadership of the most marginalized people, rather than the majority, and to focus on how multiple oppressions intersect in the lived experience of marginalized people. The creators of the reproductive justice framework rooted it in the international human rights framework, asserting that reproductive justice is an inalienable human right. In 1992, six national women of color organizations came together seeking to increase their impact on

11122-531: The greatest hurdles in their efforts to obtain an abortion in many parts of the U.S. Obstacles to obtaining an abortion in the US include a lack of Medicaid coverage for abortions (except in the case of certain circumstances, such as life endangerment), restrictive state laws (such as those requiring parental consent for a minor seeking an abortion), and conscience clauses allowing medical professionals to refuse to provide women with abortions, related information, or proper referrals. Additional obstacles to access include

11256-439: The group defeated both. This effort led to the creation of the documentary An Abortion Conspiracy, produced by Stuart Productions and GritTV, which showcased Trust Black Women's work on the billboards, as well as other anti-abortion initiatives and efforts to challenge them. Another documentary, We Always Resist, was also created about Trust Black Women. In 2011, the organization Strong Families/Forward Together then worked with

11390-487: The implantation of LARCs, but not their removal, which has disproportionately affected women of color, who often experience poverty and rely on Medicaid. LARCS have also been disproportionately promoted to women of color. Many criticize these efforts as based in eugenics and seeking to curtail population growth among communities of color. Anti-abortion advocates have used the history of forced and coerced sterilization and birth control to claim that abortion itself represents

11524-521: The individual right to plan one's own family must be central to global development. The women developed the term as a combination of reproductive rights and social justice, and dubbed themselves Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice. They launched the framework by publishing full-page statement titled "Black Women on Universal Health Care Reform" with 800+ signatures in The Washington Post and Roll Call addressing reproductive justice in

11658-627: The initiation of sexual activity or reducing teen pregnancy. Instead, graduates of abstinence-only programs are more prone to engage sexual activities without know how to prevent pregnancy and infection transmission. Reproductive justice advocates call for comprehensive sex education to be available to all young people. Reproductive justice advocates promote every individual's right to be informed about all birth control options and to have access to choosing whether to use birth control and what method to use. This includes advocacy against programs that push women of color, women on welfare, and women involved with

11792-626: The issue at the 2015 Women in the World Summit. Afterward, SisterSong and the Center for Reproductive Rights founded the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, a collaboration of 24 Black-women-led organizations who work to raise awareness about the rising black maternal mortality rate. They created the Black Mamas Matter Toolkit, an online resource for groups interested in working to reduce Black maternal mortality. Black Mamas Matter grew to nearly 40 organizational members, and in 2017 became

11926-417: The issues behind why women are having so many abortions, it just blames them for doing it ... [These billboards] are essentially blaming black women for their reproductive decisions and then the solution is to restrict and regulate black women's decisions about their bodies. Even when topics of racial genocide were no longer at the forefront of the birth control conversation, reproductive freedom for Black women

12060-820: The justice system to use LARCs. By providing women and trans people with knowledge about and access to contraception, the reproductive justice movement hopes to lower unwanted pregnancies and help people take control over their bodies. Federal programs supported by reproductive justice activists date back to the Title X Family Planning program, which was enacted in the 1970s to provide low-income individuals with reproductive health services. Title X gives funding for clinics to provide health services such as breast and pelvic examinations, STI and cancer testing, and HIV counseling and education. These clinics are vital to low-income and uninsured individuals. Advocates for reproductive justice also aim to increase funding for these programs and increase

12194-414: The lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Georgia legislators for passing a six-week abortion ban, which bans abortion before most women even know they are pregnant. Reproductive justice advocates say that the ban is unconstitutional, and that its proponents passed it to force a court case that could reach the Supreme Court. After the 2019 confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh , they believe that

12328-579: The legal right to abortion is meaningless for women who cannot access it due to the cost, the distance to the nearest provider, or other such obstacles. The reproductive justice framework encompasses a wide range of issues affecting the reproductive lives of marginalized women, including access to: contraception , comprehensive sex education , prevention and care for sexually transmitted infections, alternative birth options, adequate prenatal and pregnancy care, domestic violence assistance, adequate wages to support families, and safe homes. Reproductive justice

12462-480: The limitations of the reproductive rights framework, which has become the globally dominant framework for working with reproductive issues in policy, programming, and scholarship. Activist women of color had grown frustrated with centering of "choice" and individual rights in the dominant reproductive rights paradigm, as articulated in appeals to "the right to choose" or "my body, my choice" in debates about abortion. This assumes that all women have an equal ability to make

12596-461: The mainstream women's rights/pro-choice movement and on US policy: Asians and Pacific Islanders for Choice, National Black Women's Health Project , National Latina Health Organization , Latina Roundtable on Health and Reproductive Rights , National Coalition of 100 Black Women , and Native American Women's Health and Education Resource Center. Together, they formed Women of Color Coalition for Reproductive Health Rights (WOCCRHR). Their first action

12730-717: The march. SisterSong also broadcast the perspectives of women of color at the march live on 115 radio stations in the Pacifica national network and produced Listen Up!, a documentary film following several women-of-color-led groups organizing the march. In 2009, SisterSong organized over 300 women of color to visit 40 legislators’ offices on Capitol Hill to argue for abortion access and for immigrants’ healthcare access during healthcare debates. In 2010, they brought another large delegation from six Southern states to Washington DC to push for healthcare reform aimed to increase healthcare access for families of color. In 2010, SisterSong created

12864-504: The most maligned. At the dawn of the mainstream women's rights movements in the United States, reproductive rights were understood to be the legal rights that concerned abortion and contraceptive measures like birth control. The predominantly white advocates and organizations fighting for reproductive rights during this era focused almost exclusively on these goals. This resulted in the widespread, long-lasting exclusion of Black women from mainstream women's rights movements. The beginning of

12998-485: The most marginalized groups at the center of advocacy. SisterSong spearheaded the push for a new, comprehensive reproductive justice movement as a more inclusive alternative to the "divisive" argument for women's rights that primarily emphasized access to contraception and the right to an abortion. The founders of SisterSong also felt that some of the pro-choice activists "seemed to be more interested in population restrictions than in women's empowerment". As SisterSong spread

13132-422: The name of an organization and conference based on women's reproductive rights. Building on his legacy and the popularity of this phrase, SisterSong and reproductive justice advocates adopted Trust Black Women as an organizing slogan and the name of a national coalition of Black-women-led organizations led by SisterSong and devoted to advancing reproductive justice for the Black community (TrustBlackWomen.org). Over

13266-411: The narrow political advocacy lines that figured in abortion disputes since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the US. These new women-of-color-led organizations felt that the term "choice" excluded minority women and "masked the ways that laws, policies and public officials punish or reward the reproductive activity of different groups of women differently." Activists for

13400-585: The near-elimination of some Native American tribes. According to Flores, The mainstream feminist movement recognized coerced sterilization as a problem for black women, but continued to argue for easier access to sterilizations and abortions for themselves. Their demands directly and negatively impacted black women as they failed to take into account the needs of black women for protection from hospitals and government officials who would otherwise force black women to limit their reproduction. The genocidal connotations and lack of consideration for forced sterilization in

13534-413: The need for a movement that was able to cater specifically to the unique experiences and challenges faced by Black women. Similarly, Latinx, Arab/Middle Eastern, Indigenous, and Asian/Pacific Islander women have all faced different gender norms based on their race/ethnicity. However, the gap in the US has always been widest between white women, who are the most privileged group, and Black women, who have been

13668-510: The needs and leadership of the most oppressed people instead of the majority, reproductive justice seeks to ensure that all people can create self-determined reproductive lives. The reproductive justice lens is therefore used to address issues related to abortion, contraception, immigration, welfare, HIV/AIDS, environmental justice, racism, indigenous communities, education, LGBTQ+ rights, and disability, among other issues impacting people's reproductive lives. Reproductive Justice is, simultaneously,

13802-572: The needs of the most marginalized people of color, such as people with low incomes, young mothers, people with criminalization experience, people with HIV/AIDS, sex workers, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ people. Membership also includes white and male allies. SisterSong has built a movement that now includes many independent organizations across the country, and they remain a movement thought leader, trainer, convener, organizer, and collaboration facilitator. Monica Simpson has served as executive director since 2012. In 1994, just before attending

13936-426: The nonprofit SisterSong to build a national reproductive justice movement. Additional organizations began to form or reorganize themselves as reproductive justice organizations starting in the early 2000s. Reproductive justice, distinct from the reproductive rights movements of the 1970s, emerged as a movement because women with low incomes, women of color, women with disabilities, and LGB+ people felt marginalized in

14070-472: The number of services that are funded. Advocates for reproductive justice such as SisterSong and Planned Parenthood believe that all women should be able to obtain a safe and affordable abortion if they desire one. Having safe, local, and affordable access to abortion services is a crucial part of ensuring high-quality healthcare for women (and for trans and gender non-conforming people who can get pregnant). Access to abortion services without restrictive barriers

14204-898: The opportunity of these convenings to form a national collective of independent organizations that would help them all to achieve greater impact, and SisterSong was born with Luz Rodriguez as its first leader. The original name of the collective was SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, and the original mission was to advocate for the reproductive and sexual health needs of women of color. In its early history, SisterSong expanded to include other organizations led by women of color and to include individual women of color members. Organizational members focused on issues including HIV/AIDS services, midwifery , support for incarcerated women , health screenings, advocacy for abortion and contraception, research, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol treatment, and treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. After several years of work to develop

14338-457: The organization Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (ACRJ)--one of the original groups to define and promote reproductive justice—defines as: The control and exploitation of women and girls through our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction is a strategic pathway to regulating entire populations that is implemented by families, communities, institutions, and society. Thus, the regulation of reproduction and exploitation of women's bodies and labor

14472-575: The other hand, API communities asexualized API women and force them into conformity in the private sphere. The "model minority" myth painted API immigrants as wealthy and resourceful, while many API women worked low-wage jobs with no health insurance. In response, API women formed many successful organizations such as Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA), The Committee on South Asian Women, and Asian and Pacific Islanders for Choice (APIC). Reproductive rights have also been redefined digitally. Moving beyond contradictions about women and technology and exploring

14606-452: The power and control of white people in the United States. This concept has been a driving force behind the history of forced and coerced sterilization of women of color around the world, including in the US. The most recent cases of non-consensual sterilization in the US occurred throughout the 20th century, targeting "women living with HIV, women who are ethnic and racial minorities, women with disabilities, and poor women, among others." Often,

14740-833: The pro-choice framework did not align with the experiences of women of color, who often feel that the impact of systemic oppression limits their possibilities, so their reproductive lives are not guided by the self-determination that is taken for granted in the word "choice". In addition, they asserted that the mainstream women's rights movement did not center other pressing issues in the reproductive lives of women of color. These issues included sterilization abuse, forced and coerced promotion of LARCs (long-acting reversible contraceptives), high maternal mortality, difficulty accessing birth support choices, unsafe drinking water in family homes, police brutality, and parents being separated from children through racially biased immigration and incarceration practices. Reproductive justice advocates say that

14874-471: The reproductive freedom of Black women was an important step in leading to the expansion of reproductive politics in the US. Many new reproductive health organizations for women of color were created in the 1980s and 1990s, including the National Black Women's Health Project , and they objected to the rhetoric employed by the mainstream reproductive rights movement to define the issue of abortion along

15008-426: The reproductive justice framework by publishing a full-page statement titled "Black Women on Universal Health Care Reform" with over 800 signatures in The Washington Post and Roll Call using the concept of reproductive justice in a criticism of the Clinton health care plan . These women believed that the creation of reproductive justice was necessary because they felt that the mainstream women's rights movement

15142-433: The reproductive justice framework. In 2016, Hillary Clinton used the term reproductive justice during her campaign for the presidency. Asian and Pacific Islander women were a part of the reproductive justice movement through organizing and advocating for the ending of oppressive practices against them. Their movement included ending the sexualized stereotypes of API women which resulted in them being treated as commodities. On

15276-691: The reproductive rights movement. These women felt that the reproductive rights movement focused primarily on " pro-choice " versus " pro-life " (supporters versus opponents of abortion rights) debates. In contrast, the reproductive justice movement acknowledges the ways in which intersecting factors, such as race and social class , limit the freedom of marginalized women to make informed choices about pregnancy by imposing oppressive circumstances or restricting access to services, including but not limited to abortion, Plan B pills , and affordable care and education. Reproductive justice focuses on practical access to abortion rather than abortion rights , asserting that

15410-478: The rights of women of color subsequently expanded their attentions from a focus on unfair sterilization practices and high rates of teen pregnancy among women of color to include the promotion of a more inclusive platform to advance the rights and choices of all women. The concept of reproductive justice was first articulated in June 1994 at a national pro-choice conference by an informal Black Women's Caucus that met at

15544-419: The risks to women's health and raises the cost of procedures. The American Medical Association echoes the importance of removing barriers to obtaining an early abortion, concluding that these barriers increase the gestational age at which the induced pregnancy termination occurs, thereby also increasing the risk associated with the procedure. Minority groups experience poverty and high rates of pregnancy due to

15678-515: The same choice, but ignores structural factors such as economic status, race, immigration state, etc. Using the term reproductive justice instead of pro-choice , reproductive rights , or reproductive health , is a rhetorical choice. Robin West , professor of law and philosophy at Georgetown, says that "pro-choice" court cases may have been lost because of how the issue was framed. For instance, she argues that "rights" rhetoric gives courts, specifically

15812-526: The same exact way for Black women and other women of color. Black women were considered to be outside the cult of domesticity and many of its gender norms that were perceived by white people; as Stephanie Flores wrote in The Undergraduate Journal of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College , "Blacks were not perceived as feminine, but rather as less than human" but contraception

15946-442: The social, political, and economic systemic inequalities that affect women's reproductive health and their ability to control their reproductive lives. The founders of the reproductive justice framework also defined it as being "purposefully controversial" because it centralizes communities of color. Advocates state that centering these communities pushes back against the "dehumanizing status quo of reproductive politics." By centering

16080-514: The status of women of color in the US with that of women in developing countries and brought international attention to the issues faced by US women of color. WOCCRHR also helped women of color participate and influence the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Afterward, the coalition disbanded because their funding sources were focused on international work, and they were not able to find funding to continue their work within

16214-405: The stories specifically of women of color, treating those with lived experience as experts on the challenges they face. For social justice issues, narratives operate on two levels: individual narratives as a rights-gaining strategy and narratives about social justice or activist movements. The reproductive justice movement challenges the right to privacy framework established by Roe v. Wade that

16348-447: The various life experiences individuals may have as a result of the ways in which their identity categories, such as race, class, gender, and sexuality, interact with each other. Reproductive justice advocates use this framework to highlight how people who face greater societal oppression in their everyday lives as a result of their intersectional identities also face higher levels of oppression in their reproductive lives. This means that it

16482-419: The ways these contradictions can be challenged allows for better opportunities to take action. On March 28, 2016, "Periods for Pence" pages were created on Facebook and Twitter to combat HEA 1337. Organizers like Laura Shanley rallied women online to contact Pence's office and provide information on their reproductive health. Women were ultimately using digital means to represent their bodies and band together as

16616-494: The women who created the reproductive justice framework, Ross came with a long history of starting new organizations and programs related to human rights, violence against women, and anti-hate work. Instead of a board of directors, SisterSong was led by a Management Circle of leaders from each ethnic community in the Collective: Indigenous, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Latinx. In 2006 SisterSong incorporated as

16750-419: Was announced in a media call with Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza , who talked about beginning her organizing career in the reproductive justice movement. Garza has continued to highlight the work of Trust Black Women and SisterSong, including a 2019 article about activism in the face of Georgia and Alabama's abortion bans. In a July 2014 article, The New York Times interviewed Cecile Richards ,

16884-432: Was led by and focused on the needs of middle class white women and did not meet the needs of women of color. In their view, the pro-choice framework focused on maintaining abortion rights and did not take into account the many ways that women of color and other marginalized women and trans people have difficulty accessing abortion even in places where it is legally allowed. The creators of reproductive justice also felt that

17018-579: Was not simply about choice, but about justice. As a result, reproductive justice foreground the connection of reproductive issues and wider social justice concerns like community safety, violence, and the government's role in reproduction. For example, the right to parent in safe environments would encompass issues such as police brutality and the water crisis in Flint , Michigan. These issues are largely absent from pro-choice advocacy. Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, recently renamed Forward Together, defines

17152-612: Was particularly involved in launching New Voices for Reproductive Justice in 2004, Milwaukee Reproductive Justice Coalition in 2008, and Black Mamas Matter Alliance in 2017. In 2005, SisterSong partnered with Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice to host the first Funders’ Briefing on Reproductive Justice, specifically to explain the framework to foundations and persuade them to support movement organizations. Numerous foundations now have programs devoted to funding reproductive justice work. SisterSong has also influenced Planned Parenthood ,

17286-409: Was predicated on the notion of choice in reproductive decision-making. Essentially, the reproductive justice framework turns the focus from civil rights to human rights. The human rights approach of reproductive justice advocates the right of reproductive decision-making as inalienable for all marginalized women, regardless of their circumstances. In contrast, reproductive justice advocates argue that

17420-723: Was racist and that Planned Parenthood's agenda was genocide. The campaign culminated with an effort to pass a Georgia bill that would restrict abortions suspected of being motivated by the race or sex of the fetus. SisterSong disagreed with the accusation against Planned Parenthood and felt that the campaign was claiming that black women have a racial obligation to have babies, which overrides their personal desires and needs. SisterSong believed these efforts were seeking to divide black voters by gender and pro-choice voters by race, as well as to use anti-immigrant sentiments to bolster anti-abortion work by accusing Asian American women of aborting female fetuses due to son preference. SisterSong claimed that

17554-470: Was still not a priority of the mainstream civil rights movement in America.While reproductive politics were central to the mainstream feminist movement, they were often not addressed in ways that represented the needs of women of color as well as white women. These gaps in both the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement shed light on the need for Black women's organizations that would be separate from

17688-670: Was still socially unacceptable for Black women because it was their perceived duty to produce more slaves. The social stigmas in place greatly impact how Black women are perceived from abortion. Women of color having more trouble finding supportive communities or people they can turn to for help or advice. Women of color tend to also have a more difficult time finding a good environment to raise their children, where they will be safe, cared for, and well educated. Neither Black nor white women had been historically granted full bodily autonomy with regards to their reproductive health, but they experienced this lack of freedom differently, and thus emerged

17822-479: Was to encourage women of color to attend the 1992 March for Women's Lives organized by NOW ( National Organization for Women ), while also publicly critiquing NOW for their lack of inclusivity in planning the march. NOW's decision-making included only organizations able to make large financial contributions, which they claimed effectively excluded all organizations led by women of color, as these organizations generally lacked access to resources. WOCCRHR's second action

17956-604: Was to organize women of color to influence the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994 – the same conference that helped inspire the women who created the reproductive justice framework. WOCCRHR worked with other women of color to form the US Women of Color Delegation Project for the conference, and wrote a "Statement on Poverty, Development, and Population Activities". which they presented there. It connected

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