Harris acknowledged the women who coined the term reproductive justice in remarks in Austin last October, saying they understood 'the need to identify, articulate and address those inequities based on race, based on income, based on location.' Activists are also getting a more direct line to the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris inviting reproductive justice groups to a February round table. SisterSong, for example, has expanded its work with the NAACP, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, National Urban League, National Action Network and Legal Defense Fund. More are partnering with national reproductive rights and civil rights organizations. Since then, several reproductive justice leaders said they've gotten more funding opportunities. Google searches for 'reproductive justice' spiked by almost 10 times that summer. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had protected abortion rights at the national level for decades, many women who supported abortion rights and wanted to fight back began looking for a movement that aligned with their goals. Wade was overturned?Īfter the Supreme Court last year struck down Roe v. HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS PEN LETTER TO U.N.: US abortion bans violate international law, 200 human rights groups say 'We thought it was going to have a short shelf life,' said Ross, a founding member of SisterSong. 'Reproductive justice was created by Black women during a space and a time where we weren't talking about the most vulnerable communities and their lived experiences,' Jones said.Īfter the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice formed, they collected signatures from Black women wanting health care reform and put out newspaper ads calling for reform packages to include concerns of Black women.

Those challenges include access to prenatal and postnatal care, racism in healthcare settings and environmental injustice, Past movements also ignored systemic barriers that prevented marginalized communities from having children and raising them safely, said Marsha Jones, executive director of the Afiya Center, a Texas-based reproductive justice organization. For many, advocates note, the struggle extends far beyond whether they have legal access to abortion because of a history of discrimination that could make it harder for certain groups to pay for abortion and child care and overcome language barriers or other obstacles. The reproductive justice movement was founded by Black women who felt the debate around abortion rights was often driven by white women who may not have taken into account the extra barriers some communities, such as people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ+ folks and low-income households, face when trying to access health care. 'THIS IS WHAT WE FEARED': Latinas are largest group of women of color affected by abortion bans What are the principles of reproductive justice? Reproductive justice hinges on the human right 'to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities,' said Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a multiracial reproductive justice organization. Many look at how issues ranging from police brutality, mass incarceration and the lack of access to HIV care, among other topics, affect people's ability to have and raise children. They help fund abortion care, transportation to out-of-state clinics, and prenatal and postnatal care. In addition to advocating for the legal right to abortion, many reproductive justice organizations push for policies that specifically help marginalized communities access reproductive health care.

SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN ARRESTED: Incident draws attention to criminalization of self-managed abortions It combines social justice with human rights to take into account how a person's intersecting identities affect their ability to make choices about their reproductive life. The reproductive justice movement goes far beyond abortion rights. Thirty years later, the framework has become a driving force in the national conversation about abortion access, with a new generation of activists pushing for a broader conversation about reproductive freedom in the United States. And in that hotel room, the term 'reproductive justice' was born. They called themselves the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice.

'It was a rare moment to have this inter-organizational dialogue from the perspectives of Black women,' Ross said. That day, the women had felt their communities and their reproductive health care needs were being sidelined, so they pulled away from the other 200 white women there for a private chat. Loretta Ross could feel the excitement in the Chicago hotel room, where she and 11 other Black women gathered during a health care conference in June 1994.

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