What is Reproductive Justice?
Although there has long been sustained activism for reproductive justice, the term was first utilized in 1994 as an organizing framework by a group of Black women who called themselves the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice. The definition of reproductive justice moves beyond the pro-choice / pro-life debate to affirm three primary principles:
“(1) the right not to have a child;
(2) the right to have a child;
and (3) the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments” (Ross and Solinger 2017).
This framework posits that access to the material resources that establish “safe and dignified” fertility management, childbirth and care for children is a fundamental human right. Therefore, the movement is closely and intersectionally aligned with other social justice movements and human rights advocacy.
In Reproductive Justice: An Introduction, Ross and Solinger declare, “The reproductive justice framework derives its vital depth from drawing attention to the persistence of this history – the ways that the history of white supremacy operating in a capitalist system penetrates and misshapes the present” (Ross and Solinger 2017).
Website Outline
Historical Context: In Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, author Paul Farmer writes, “Human rights violations are not accidents; they are not random in distribution or effect. Rights violations are, rather, symptoms of deeper pathologies of power and are linked intimately to the social conditions that so often determine who will suffer abuse and who will be shielded from harm.” The historical context section of the Reproductive Justice Archive website seeks to draw ‘attention to the persistence’ of history through an in-depth timeline of the racialized anti- and pro-natalist policies and practices of the American government and people in pursuit of the creation of a white-supremacist nation state.
Resources: The Resources section contains organizations dedicated to advocating for Reproductive Justice in the United States, with which you can get involved in activism or seek psychosocial care and support. It also contains a reading list of both fiction and non-fiction books for further exploration of reproductive justice in the United States. Finally, it includes videos about where the Reproductive Justice movement is headed.
