Reproductive Justice: Part 1 [Video]

Reproductive justice is a BLACK issue. In fact, the term and framework was created by Black women to ensure that we maintain the autonomy to make decisions for our own bodies and families.

Learn more and join the fight for Liberated Bodies at https://coc.is/LB.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

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for years the experiences of black women
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trans people and non-binary people have
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been excluded in the fight for
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reproductive rights
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the mainstream pro-choice movement has
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failed to address that there is no
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choice
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where there is no access
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by focusing on abortion rights alone
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advocacy ignores the barriers
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marginalized folks face when trying to
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access things like
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safe abortions contraception
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and sex education
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in 1994 a group of black women coined
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the term reproductive justice
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when they noticed there was little
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mention of health services like pre and
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postnatal care
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fibroid screenings or sti testing in
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health care reform and little
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understanding of how things like income
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housing and the criminal justice system
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affect black women’s reproductive
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choices
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they recognize that the women’s rights
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movement dominated and led by middle
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class wealthy white women could not
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represent the needs of women of color
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and other marginalized people and called
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for an intersectional approach to
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reproductive health care
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the argument that abortion is an
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individual decision flattens the problem
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into a binary
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pro-choice versus pro-life
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intersectionality reveals how multiple
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systems of oppression work together and
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limit access to reproductive options for
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black women and other marginalized
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groups
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since our arrival in the united states
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black women have been targets of
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reproductive oppression from being
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worked and bred like animals to being
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forcibly tested on like lab mice our
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bodies have been controlled inhumanly
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for centuries
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in the 1900s a new strain of racism
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emerged called eugenics a pseudo-science
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devoted to proving white racial
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superiority which led to the force
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sterilization of many women of color
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between 1970 and 1980 sterilization
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cases rose from two hundred thousand to
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seven hundred thousand
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teaching hospitals across the south
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routinely performed unnecessary
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hysterectomies on poor black women
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in 1973 minnie lee and mary alice ralph
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were just 12 and 14 years old when they
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were sterilized without consent under a
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federally funded program
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as you can see black women’s
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reproduction has historically been
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viewed as negative
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to this day black maternal mortality
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rates are the highest of any racial or
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ethnic group in the country with many
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black women reporting being dismissed
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when complaining about extreme pain
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the effects of these types of injustices
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are felt for generations
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and with bands like the hyde amendment
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and the family cap directly impacting
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people already facing systemic barriers
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to care they continue to be ignored
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the current conversation is focused on
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the stripping of rights afforded under
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roe v wade but for many black and poor
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people around the country these rights
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have never been actualized
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black women led reproductive justice
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organizations like sister song ancient
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song doula services black women’s health
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imperative and others have been fighting
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to keep women of color and trans and
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non-binary people’s voices at the
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forefront of the movement
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it’s time we shift the conversation to
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what needs to change and address the
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social political and economic
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inequalities impacting a woman’s ability
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to access reproductive health care
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it’s not enough for abortion to remain
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legal
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in order to truly have reproductive
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justice we need to address all the
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issues involved
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to learn more and take action visit
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liberatedbodies.org
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[Music]
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you

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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