The term “reproductive justice” has been all the rage lately. Throughout the media, you can hear people speaking for or against women’s possession over their bodies. After visiting Choices on Friday, an ambulatory surgery center that provides gynecological care, prenatal care, and yes, abortions, I was all on board the reproductive justice train.
I mean, with Merle Hoffman speaking of her experiences, how could you not be on board? After reading SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice however, I had to rethink my experience at Choices as well as discussions being held about women’s control of their reproduction. It seems to me that reproductive justice is something essential to black feminism and minority women’s lives in general. And although Ms. Hoffman is not a minority, her clinic and her work deals with minority women, making it more than gynecology but a form of reproductive justice. SisterSong links women’s oppression to their reproduction. As their website states, “Reproductive Justice addresses the social reality of inequality, specifically, the inequality of opportunities that we have to control our reproductive destiny.” Inequality of opportunities has much more to do with reproduction than Roe vs. Wade. It’s about access. Access to birth control, gynecologists, condoms. That’s why Choices is so crucial. Not only was it located in the community of these women (as well as a major stop on public transportation), but it also provided them with on the spot Medicaid. Now women, young women, without insurance are able to go to the doctor and learn about safe sex, measures to take to ensure their health, and if necessary, receive an abortion.
Reproductive justice, while tied to women of color, affects all women in the end. Minority women are not the only ones getting abortions out there. Battered women, poor women, white women. We all deserve the rights to control our own bodies, we all deserve the right to determine our own futures and for some of us, our uteri are the first step. We have the right to provide our children with the life they deserve. At Third Wave Foundation, we take it a step further and ask what can we do for the LGBTQ community. Queer women, trans-people all deserve these reproductive rights. Rights to receive hormones, to feel comfortable with their bodies while at the doctor. How can we move reproductive justice away from being solely about traditional women and make it encompass the human, regardless of gender?
Fun Things:
Rep. Gwen Moore discusses how reproductive justice affects black children:
I really enjoyed your post here – it made me realize that I’ve given lip service to the buzzword of “reproductive justice” without really thinking about exactly what it means and how far it goes. It’s interesting to see how directly so much of a woman’s freedom and feminism is tied to reproductive rights however broadly they are defined. And, that’s pretty much always been the basis for my “right to choose” stance – shouldn’t we all have the power to decide what to do or not do with our bodies? If the right to choose exists, you can choose not to have an abortion if you believe life begins at conception but if there is no right to choose my beliefs are stifled and I can’t make the choice that I otherwise would. It always seems so simple to me but then, I’m sure that is what everyone thinks about their own opinions!