Reproductive Justice

Abstract

The authors examine the development of reproductive rights, a law-focused movement, and reproductive justice, a social justice–aimed movement that emphasizes intersecting social identities (e.g., gender, race, and class) and community-developed solutions to structural inequalities. In examining the intertwining histories of the reproductive health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice movements, we consider the relationship between law and social movements, including the limits of law to inform radical social movements. We highlight how the relationship between scholarship and activism on the right to not have children has expanded to include notions of the right to have children (e.g., for low-income people or with the aid of technology) and the right to parent with dignity (e.g., for incarcerated people or in nonmedicalized settings). We end the article with a discussion of best practices and future directions for research.

Realizing Reproductive Health Equity Needs More Than Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC)

“…8 When fully realized, this vision offers people access to non-coercive, patient-centered reproductive health counseling and a range of contraceptive methods, and it offers, crucially, the right to have children free of stigma and shame. This is of particular importance for young parents, whose pregnancies and childbearing are so commonly denigrated and devalued.…”

Structural Competency and Reproductive Health

“…They openly challenged the exclusion of abortion access from health care reform and pushed for an intersectional understanding of reproductive oppression, particularly the forces that denied women of color the human right to have children and to parent with safety and dignity, as well as the right not to have children [44]. These activists paved the way for minority women's leadership in health advocacy and in organizing successful campaigns against unjust policies and practices [45]. One example of reproductive justice in action is Black Women Birthing Justice, a San Francisco Bay Area collective that seeks to ensure, for black women, the right to birth with safety and autonomy-where, how, and with whom they choose.…”

The Ethnic Dimensions in Social Movements*

“…But the same problems of cultural differences and hierarchies of privilege make genuine collaboration in such movements difficult to sustain without special attention to the problem. The constructs of reproductive justice as opposed to reproductive rights (Luna and Luker 2013;Luna 2010) arose from minority critiques of the reproductive rights movement, and the "environmental justice" frame arose from a criticism of White-dominated environmentalist groups. Lichterman (1995) showed how Black and White grass roots environmental groups with explicit multicultural goals but different cultural styles had trouble interacting.…”