Complex Intersections: Reproductive Justice and Native American Women

Abstract

This article presents an overview of reproductive justice as a theoretical and activist paradigm developed in response to reproductive oppression in the United States, and focuses on the reproductive justice needs of Native American women, as well as the responses developed by Native American women and their allies to these needs. I make explicit the links between reproductive justice, environmental justice and human rights for Native American communities, and articulate the ways in which reproductive healthcare for Native American women as it is provided by the Indian Health Service (IHS) acts as a fulcrum for these links. Ultimately, the failure of the IHS to meet the reproductive healthcare needs of Native American women reflects the failure of the federal government to meet its obligations to Tribal nations; further, these failures produce structures of reproductive oppression in Native communities which scholars and activists seek to redress utilizing the rubric of women’s reproductive health.

The geography of abortion: Discourse, spatiality and mobility

“…Reproductive Justice scholars have been rightly critical of the mainstream reproductive rights movement, with its focus on abortion (at the expense of other reproductive activities like childbirth and child rearing) and its underdeveloped account of class and economic justice ( Luna and Luker, 2013 ; Nelson, 2003 ). We therefore argue that it is essential to place abortion scholarship within broader contexts to also address the oppressive racial, historical, economic and sexual inequality structures within which rights can be exercised or not ( Gurr, 2011 ).…”

Resettlement Divorce: The Hidden Costs of Family Separation During Refugee Resettlement

“…My involvement with the CEP was primarily as a researcher conducting fieldwork, and I also volunteered as a spoken English language instructor. My participation in community events was an essential way for refugees to learn about my research project and provide opportunities to hold me openly accountable 7 to the community which is essential for non-native researchers (Gurr 2011;Kahakalau 2004;Smith 2012;Wilson 2008). This study is informed by institutional ethnography (IE) which provides a methodological tool to examine the mechanisms by which the local "everyday/every night" world of individuals is shaped and coordinated extra locally through institutionally organized social relations (Smith 1999(Smith , 2005.…”

Abortion mobilities

“…In response to the US Supreme Court's leaked decision on the overturning of Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), some pro-abortion feminists suggested that abortion could be provided on Native American reservations, which have a degree of sovereignty from state and federal law. While additional clinics, especially in rural and remote areas, could expand abortion mobilities in the post-Roe context, a reproductive justice perspective calls for us to consider the historical context in which this idea has been proposed (Gurr, 2011a(Gurr, , 2014. Indigenous Women Rising (IWR), an abortion collective, has been a leader in this conversation.…”