Reproductive Justice

Abstract

Reproductive justice is a social justice framework that posits that individuals and communities have the human right to control their bodies, sexuality, labor, and reproduction free from control, coercion, or exploitation by outside forces, including, but not limited to, governmental bodies, medical and health institutions, legal systems, religious institutions, and economic institutions. Reproductive justice is not synonymous with the concept of “reproductive rights,” which has narrowly focused on securing legal access to abortion and contraception and is centered on the legal right to privacy and the right to “choose.” While both frameworks support the right not to have children (e.g. the right to prevent and terminate pregnancies), reproductive justice also focuses on the right to have children, the right to parent the children that one has in healthy and safe environments, and the right to bodily integrity, i.e. the human right to personal autonomy and self‐determination over one's body free from coercion, threat of violence, and exploitation. Additionally, intersectionality is a core principle, for reproductive justice addresses how the intersections of sex, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, citizenship status, and other markers of identity, oppression, and privilege differently affect the reproductive and sexual experiences of specific social groups and individuals.