Reproductive justice

Reproductive justice is a concept that was brought about and turned into a movement by an activist group named SisterSong. They define reproductive justice as " the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities." Reproductive justice emerged as an issue because lower-class women, women of color, and women of the LGBTQ+ community felt a sense of neglect in the women's rights movement. These women started voicing their want and need for reproductive justice in the 1990s, and became a more widely popularized concept among women's rights advocates in the early 2000s. Reproductive justice includes the reproductive right to have the choice of having an abortion, but it goes beyond the pro-choice movement by first acknowledging the fact that a woman can't exercise her reproductive rights if her other human rights are not being met. Reproductive justice activists advocate for other human rights including, but not limited to, immigrant rights, disability rights, and LGBTQ+ rights.

Historical context

The term "reproductive justice" was coined by Loretta Ross, co-founder and National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005-2012. She defines reproductive justice as a framework created by activist women of color to address how race, gender, class, ability, nationality, and sexuality intersect. As a concept, reproductive justice was created by these activist women of color in SisterSong because they felt that the dominant paradigm of "pro-choice" did not meet their needs. They reported not being able to exercise reproductive choices as easily as their more privileged counterparts. For them, reproductive politics was not about choice, but about justice. Reproductive justice is based on the theory of intersectionality which states that people have different life experiences and opportunities based on how identity categories, such as race, class, gender, and sexuality, interact with each other. Reproductive justice explains how people oppressed by their intersectional identities also experience higher levels of reproductive oppression. This means that it is often harder for oppressed people to access healthcare because of factors such as education, income, geographic location, immigration status, and potential language barriers. Activist women of color created this framework because they felt they did not have any, or as much, choice as their privileged counterparts when it came to making decisions about women's healthcare.

This term gained traction in the early 1990s, especially after the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. At this conference, the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice (WADRJ) joined with organizations in the Global South to address poverty, women's reproduction, and underdevelopment. As explained below, these women felt like "choice" (as in "pro-choice") was an inadequate frame for them. They felt they did not even have the ability to make choices about their healthcare because of structural inequalities. This tension created the need for a new frame to meet their specific needs, reproductive justice. In addition to advocating, as do traditional reproductive rights platforms, for the access of women to birth control, reproductive justice provides a framework that focuses additional attention on the social, political, and economic inequalities among different communities that contribute to infringements of reproductive justice. The paradigms that combine the empowerment of women with reproduction have since been categorized into three frameworks: reproductive health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice. The reproductive health framework addresses inequalities in health services by advocating for the provision of services to historically under-served communities. The reproductive rights framework emphasizes the protection of an individual woman's legal right to reproductive health services, focusing on increasing access to contraception and keeping abortion legal. Finally, the reproductive justice framework utilizes an intersectional analysis of women's experiences and focuses on changing the structural inequalities that affect women's reproductive health and their ability to control their reproductive lives.

Reproductive justice is a critical, theoretical framework that was invented as a response to United States reproductive politics. The three core values of reproductive justice (RJ) are (1) the right to have a child, (2), the right to not have a child, and (3) the right to parent a child or children in safe and healthy environments.

The founders of the reproductive justice framework argued that it is "purposefully controversial" because it centralizes communities of color. Advocates state that centering these communities pushes back against the "dehumanizing status quo of reproductive politics."

Reproductive justice is a lens used to address issues like abortion, contraception, immigration, welfare, HIV/AIDS, environmental justice, indigenous communities, and disability. It tries to make sense of community issues and issues that involve reproduction. This includes education, income, immigration status, disability, and sexual orientation because these factors may shape access to reproductive healthcare.

As such, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, recently renamed Forward Together, defines the concept as follows:

"Reproductive Justice is the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, economic, and social well-being of women and girls, and will be achieved when women and girls have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction for ourselves, our families, and our communities in all areas of our lives."

Reproductive justice has expanded the pro-choice movement from a focus on abortion issues that marginalizes poor women and women of color to encompass a much broader scope of women's reproductive rights. Reproductive justice attempts to move women's reproductive rights past a legal and political debate to incorporate the economic, social and health factors that impact women's reproductive choices and decision-making ability. The reproductive justice movement, in its efforts to illuminate these issues, challenges the right to privacy framework established by Roe v. Wade that was predicated on the notion of choice in reproductive decision-making, and in effect turns the focus of reproductive decision-making away from one centered on civil rights toward that of human rights. The human rights approach of reproductive justice advocates for the ability of women to make decisions about their own reproduction and emphasizes the right of reproductive decision-making as a benefit afforded to all women regardless of their circumstances as opposed to the civil rights framework of choice that is connected to the possession of resources that influences the choices one has. As Rickie Solinger notes in Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, "the term rights often refers to the privileges or benefits a person is entitled to and can exercise without special resources", whereas the privacy framework established by Roe, and as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Maher v. Roe, holds that "the state is not obligated to provide the means for women to realize their constitutionally protected rights, but only to refrain from putting any 'obstacles' in their 'path'". The reproductive justice movement seeks to secure women's reproductive rights by attempting to abolish the civil rights foundation of a right to privacy created by Roe and that has restricted some women from receiving reproductive services because they lack the resources for a foundation of reproductive rights as human rights. In 2017, Loretta Ross along with Solinger wrote Reproductive Justice: An Introduction (Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the 21st Century) detailing the many ways Reproductive Justice and Human Rights intersect with one another.

Origins in the United States

Exclusionary Aspects of Reproductive Rights

Historically, at the beginning of the mainstream women’s rights movements in the United States, reproductive rights were understood to be the legal rights that concerned abortion and contraceptive measures like birth control. The predominantly white early advocates and organizations fighting for reproductive rights focused almost explicitly on these goals, and it resulted in the widespread, long-lasting exclusion of Black women from mainstream women’s rights movements.

The beginning of the birth control movement in the United States alienated Black women in many ways. With mostly white leadership, advocates in this movement catered mainly to the needs of white women, and ignored the needs of Black women. One problematic aspect of the birth control movement was the genocidal connotation it began to have among the African American community. The concept of “race suicide” perpetuated by white nationalists in the US in the early 20th century is what began to widely racialize the concept of birth control, turning it into a controversial issue among the black communities in the US. “Race suicide” was essentially based in the fear that white women using birth control would reduce the number of white babies being born, thus limiting the power and control of white people in the United States. In addition to those white nationalist fears however, there was also the very present danger of forced or coerced sterilization of women of color around the world, including Black women in the US. The most recent cases of non-consensual sterilization in the US occurred throughout the 20th century, targeting “women living with HIV, women who are ethnic and racial minorities, women with disabilities, and poor women, among others”. Often, the “consent” for sterilization was obtained from women under distressing circumstances (i.e. labor) or obtained without providing all of the necessary information regarding the sterilization. Other times, a woman’s consent was not given, and the procedure occurred while undergoing a cesarean section. These sterilizations were often publicly funded, occurring throughout many states in the US. “The mainstream feminist movement recognized coerced sterilization as a problem for black women, but continued to argue for easier access to sterilizations and abortions for themselves. Their demands directly and negatively impacted black women as they failed to take into account the needs of black women for protection from hospitals and government officials who would otherwise force black women to limit their reproduction”. The genocidal connotations and lack of consideration for forced sterilization in the birth control movement contributed to intersectional challenges faced by black women, creating another setting in which they were struggling to balance their black identity with their female identity.

Additionally, this specific part of the birth control movement essentially espoused that women could attain freedom and equality with legal access to these family planning services, and would be lifted out of poverty. While this may have been true for partially true for some white women who were free of racist or classist discrimination, Black women had many more barriers that were blocking their way to liberation, by nature of being Black in such a racially unequal society.

Different Gender Norms for White Woman and Black Women

Early notions of women’s liberation focused largely on freedom from the Victorian Era gender roles. These roles placed white women in the cult of domesticity, confining them to the expectations of motherhood and home-maker, void of any autonomy separate from their husbands or families. These feminine norms and restrictions did not apply the same exact way for Black women. Black women were considered to be outside the cult of domesticity and many of its gender norms that were perceived by white people; as Stephanie Flores wrote in The Undergraduate Journal of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, “Blacks were not perceived as feminine, but rather as less than human” but contraception was still socially unacceptable for Black women because it was their perceived duty to produce more slaves.

Neither black nor white women had been historically granted full bodily autonomy with regards to their reproductive health, but they experienced this lack of freedom differently, and thus emerged the need for a movement that was able to cater specifically to the unique experiences and challenges faced by Black women.

Redefining Reproductive Rights

Even when topics of racial genocide were no longer at the forefront of the birth control conversation, reproductive freedom for black women was still not a priority of the mainstream civil rights movement in America, and while reproductive politics were central to the mainstream feminist movement, these issues were not always addressed in ways that catered to black women as well. These gaps in both movements shed light on the need for black women’s organizations, separate from the existing ones that focused on gender or racial equality exclusively.

The Committee to End Sterilization Abuse (CESA) was an organization formed in 1977 that was specifically dedicated to addressing the forced sterilization of Black women in the US. CESA created a “working paper” that essentially served as an open letter to mainstream feminist activists called Sterilization Abuse: A task for the Women’s Movement. This paper highlighted one of the biggest intersectional challenges Black women faced in their fight for reproductive rights. It explained how despite not being addressed in mainstream feminism’s fight for reproductive freedom, forced sterilization is indeed an infringement on one’s reproductive rights, and one that disproportionately affected black women over white women. Calling attention to this infringement on the reproductive freedom of Black women was an important step in leading to the expansion of reproductive politics in the US.

Today’s mainstream reproductive rights movement addresses many more social and political issues, beyond just those of abortion and contraceptive rights. This expansion is also largely due to the emergence of reproductive justice, a concept brought about by black feminist activists. Specifically, the group Sister Song popularized this concept in the 1990s. Essentially, reproductive justice calls for a more comprehensive coverage of issues that may affect women, from pre/postnatal care to services for breast cancer and HIV/AIDS victims, and those affected by intimate partner violence. This concept expanded on abortion and birth control advocacy to address a wider range of reproductive health issues tied to intersectional oppression. “It was an amplifying organizing concept to shed light on the intersectional forms of oppression that threaten Black women’s bodily integrity”. The transition from the focus of mainstream feminism on reproductive rights to reproductive justice was integral in forming the more progressive third wave feminism that seeks to promote intersectionality.

Roots of the reproductive justice framework can be traced to the abortion debate in the United States and the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Many new reproductive health organizations for women of color such as the National Black Women's Health Project were created in the 1980s and 1990s and objected to the rhetoric employed by the mainstream reproductive rights movement to define these along the pro-choice and pro-life lines that figured in the abortion disputes. The new organizations felt that the term "choice" excluded minority women and "masked the ways that laws, policies and public officials punish or reward the reproductive activity of different groups of women differently". Activists for the rights of women of color subsequently expanded their attentions from a focus on unfair sterilization practices and high rates of teen pregnancy among women of color to include the promotion of a more inclusive platform to advance the rights of all women.

The concept of reproductive justice was articulated first in June 1994 at a national pro-choice conference by an informal Black Women's Caucus that met at the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance in Chicago. This caucus preceded the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that took place two months later. The ICPD produced the Cairo Programme of Action that identified reproductive health as a human right. After Cairo, the Black women promoting the reproductive justice framework sought to adapt to the United States' reproductive rights movement the human rights framework outlined by the ICPD and expanded the term "reproductive justice" originally defined as "reproductive health integrated into social justice" by using the moral, legal, and political language of human rights

In 1997, a cohort of groups that promote the rights of Native and women of color, some of which had been involved in organizing the Black Women's Caucus, organized together to form the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. SisterSong is the organization that coined reproductive justice as a term. Their website states that reproductive justice is a human right, is about access (not choice), and is about more than just abortion. They argue that reproductive justice can be achieved by examining power structures and intersectionality, joining together across identities and issues, and putting the most marginalized groups at the center of their advocacy.

SisterSong spearheaded the push for a new, comprehensive reproductive justice movement as a more inclusive alternative to the "divisive" argument for women's rights that primarily emphasized access to contraception and the right to an abortion. The founders of SisterSong also felt that some of the pro-choice activists "seemed to be more interested in population restrictions than in women's empowerment".

As the collective became more organized, reproductive justice figured more prominently in the discussion of women's rights and empowerment. The 2003 SisterSong National Women of Color Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights Conference popularized the term and identified the concept as "a unifying and popular framework" among the various organizations that attended the conference. In 2004, Jael Silliman published the first book on reproductive justice, Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice. Moving forward, reproductive justice groups modeled some of their rhetoric after Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion provider who was assassinated in his church in Wichita, Kansas, in 2009. He coined the phrase "Trust Women" which was used to promote abortion rights by arguing that women should be trusted to make their own decisions. "Trust Women" became the name of an organization and conference based on women's reproductive rights. Building on his legacy and the popularity of this phrase, SisterSong and reproductive justice advocates adopted a similar slogan, "Trust Black Women." Similarly, the website, TrustBlackWomen.org, is based on reproductive justice advocacy.

Since then, groups that promote women's rights such as the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood have increasingly used the language of reproductive justice for their own advocacy. The movement has become more mainstream as organizations such as the Law Students for Reproductive Justice that focus on the promotion of rights of all women have also become involved in this activism.

Reproductive justice and pro-choice

Abortion discourse in the United States is often explained in terms of being "pro-choice," i.e. in favor of abortion rights, or "pro-life," i.e. favoring fetal development and the unborn child, and generally being opposed to abortion. Reproductive justice challenges the pro-choice/pro-life dichotomy. RJ understands "choice" as something that divides women in policy and practice because it assumes that all women have an equal ability to make the same choices. Therefore, "choice" ignores structural factors such as economic status, race, immigration state, etc. Some women's studies scholars like Greta Gaard argue that "choice" is a "scheme of omission" which means that it leaves many women out of the conversation, particular women of color, immigrant women, queer women, transgender women, etc. Structurally, these identities do not have the same degrees of choice when it comes to accessing reproductive care. Gaard argues that this further divides women according to class and race. This creates a need for a new frame that is more inclusive and reproductive justice is supposed to said frame.

As a framework, reproductive justice is said to be more expansive and inclusive than "pro-choice." RJ includes community safety, violence, and the government's role in reproduction. The "go-to" or key example used to show how "reproductive justice" differs from "pro-choice," is police brutality. The reproductive justice framework addresses community issues including the right to safety and to parent in safe environments whereas pro-choice typically does not. Therefore, police brutality is seen as a reproductive justice issue. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, would also be considered a reproductive justice issue because this issue shapes the well-being and health of children and members of that community.

Reproductive justice advocates do not prefer choice as a term because it colloquially refers to a woman's right to choose abortion as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade (1973). RJ is about more than just abortion rights, which explains the need for new terminology. These advocates explain that reproductive health is about more than just abortion, especially for communities of color who have faced a history of forced sterilization and eugenic practices.

A common misconception is that reproductive justice meant to replace the terms "reproductive rights" and/or "reproductive health". For reproductive justice advocates, it is not that one term is better than another term, but they do refer to different things. Reproductive justice as both a phrase and a concept is based on black women's voices and lives. It is based on movement-building. Reproductive rights refers to legal issues and reproductive health refers to services pertaining to reproduction.

For US prisons

Since 1980, the number of women in prison has tripled, leading to a high incidence of serious health concerns, including HIV, Hepatitis C, and reproductive diseases. The rate of HIV is higher among women prisoners than men prisoners and can be as much as one hundred times higher among prisoners than in the general population, depending on the prison group. The trend towards longer and heavier sentences have also led to greater health concerns as many prisons offer little accessibility to adequate medical care. Also, prisons are increasingly being built on rural land, isolated from major resources for medical care. Two major areas of concern for reproductive justice in prisons lies in medical neglect in the form of little to no reproductive health care and nonconsensual prison intervention on a woman's right to reproduce.

Medical neglect

Women in the criminal justice system tend to come from sectors of society with limited access to health care. Currently, there are few services offered to address this gender specific health disparity in the underserved communities. The time spent in prisons provides a unique opportunity to respond to health needs, particularly in reproductive health. A Rhode Island report showed that 84% had been sexually active within 3 months of their arrest while only 28% used contraception. Newly incarcerated women are at a higher risk of experiencing unintended pregnancies. Many of these pregnancies also become high risk due to lack of prenatal care services and drug use that leads to preterm deliveries, spontaneous abortions, low-birthweight infants, and preeclampsia. Also, many developing fetuses may be exposed to teratogenic medications during treatment as well as alcohol, causing fetal alcohol syndrome. Infants are twice as likely to die when mothers report that their pregnancies are unwanted in the first trimester.

Birth control

While it is unknown what percentage of incarcerated women engages in unprotected sex prior to incarceration, research has shown that providing emergency contraception may decrease the risk of unintended pregnancies. In a study conducted in San Francisco with women ages 18–44 within 24 hours of arrest, 29% were eligible for emergency contraception. Of these, 48% indicated a willingness to take emergency contraception. 71% responded that they would accept advance supply of emergency contraception upon release. In a study amongst 950 prisons only 70% reported contraception counseling. Another Rhode Island study showed that 77.5% reported a desire to initiate use of birth control while 4.4% of women after four weeks of their release initiated use of contraception. Therefore, provision of contraceptive services to women during incarceration does positively affect the rates of contraception use.

Access to abortion

Although abortions were made legal in the Roe v.s. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973, many obstacles to women's access remain. Young, low-income, and non-white women experience the greatest hurdles in their efforts to obtain an abortion in many parts of the U.S. Obstacles to obtaining an abortion in the U.S. include a lack of Medicaid coverage for abortions (except in the case of certain circumstances, such as life endangerment), restrictive state laws (such as those requiring parental consent for a minor seeking an abortion), and conscience clauses allowing medical professionals to refuse to provide women with abortions, related-information, or proper referrals. Additional obstacles to access include a lack of safety for providers and patients at abortion facilities, the conservative, anti-choice political legislators and the citizens that support them, and a lack of qualified abortion providers, especially in rural states. A survey presented in Contraception found that 88% claimed there were transportation services for abortion clinics but only 54% claimed that the facility helped arrange appointments. The results from the survey also found a correlation between Republican-dominated state legislatures and severely restricted coverage for abortion. The research concludes that full access isn’t available in all settings, and correctional settings should increase the accessibility of services for women. Proponents of reproductive justice in prisons argue that withholding access to abortion can be seen as a violation of the 8th Amendment, preventing cruel and unusual punishments.

Sexually transmitted diseases

Research has shown a correlation between the 3.2% increase in women's prison population and the increase risk of incarcerated women catching sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, from another inmate. HIV/AIDS incidences are 3-4 times higher since the growth of prison populations. Many prisons also lack a pre-screening process for incarcerated women. Another survey of 188 women showed that more than half reported a history of gynecological infection, particularly yeast infections. 57.9% of STD cases were found in non-white women. The male condom (74.1%), birth control pills (66.5%), withdrawal (38.9%), and the Depo-Provera injection (24.3%) were the most common methods of contraception.

Human rights violations

Prisons have demonstrated high incidents of human rights violations. These include cases of medical neglect and forced sterilization. Often, acts of forced sterilizations have been justified as punishments for imprisoned women. These violations continue to occur due to limited public attention towards cases of prisoner dehumanization and injustice. This leads to greater helplessness as imprisoned women lose say in the treatment of their bodies. For example, prisons often perform forced hysterectomies on imprisoned women. Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights established by the United Nations prohibits cruel, degrading, inhumane torture. The lifelong effects of forced sterilization as well as the unnecessary suffering due to untreated disease violates these treaties.

Issues

Broader socioeconomic issues and reproductive oppression

The organization Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, one of the original groups to define and promote reproductive justice, defines the challenges to reproductive health, rights, and justice as the concept of reproductive oppression. They explain,

"The control and exploitation of women and girls through our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction is a strategic pathway to regulating entire populations that is implemented by families, communities, institutions, and society. Thus, the regulation of reproduction and exploitation of women's bodies and labor is both a tool and a result of systems of oppression based on race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, age and immigration status. This is reproductive oppression as we use the term."

The definition of reproductive justice established by these groups as a counter to reproductive oppression illustrates the broadening of the reproductive rights and health frameworks, expanding focus from protecting individual rights and choices to address broader socioeconomic conditions.

Advocates of reproductive justice support a diversity of issues they consider necessary for women to make reproductive decisions free of constraint or coercion. These enabling conditions include access to reliable transportation, health services, education, childcare, and positions of power; adequate housing and income; elimination of health hazardous environments; and freedom from violence and discrimination.

Birth control

Reproductive justice advocates promote increased awareness of methods of contraception including IUD's, the vaginal ring, the birth control pill, condoms, and forms of emergency contraception like Plan B. By providing women with knowledge about and access to contraception, the reproductive justice movement hopes to lower unwanted pregnancies and help women take control over their bodies.

Reproductive justice also strives to make birth control more affordable for all women and petitions insurance companies to cover the costs of women's reproductive health. The National Organization for Women, for example, petitioned national legislators in 2009 to reinstate the low-cost contraception distribution by campus and community health centers, an effort that resulted in the passage of the Omnibus Appropriations Act.

Federal programs supported by reproductive justice activists date back to the Title X Family Planning program, which was enacted in the 1970s to provide low income individuals with reproductive health services. Title X gives funding for clinics to provide health services such as breast and pelvic examinations, STD and cancer testing, and HIV counseling and education. These clinics are vital to low-income and uninsured individuals. Advocates for reproductive justice also aim to increase funding for these programs and increase the number of services that are funded."Title X Family Planning Program". United States Department of Health and Human Services. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government. Retrieved August 9, 2016.>

Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, many health care plans did not offer coverage for contraception methods, especially the more expensive procedures and devices, but the new healthcare legislation now gives women access to protective reproductive health services. Such services include pap tests, STI screening and counseling, prenatal care, and the human papillomavirus vaccine. A press release by the reproductive justice organization SPARK states, "women will receive better coverage and more choices in their health care" due to this expansion of care.

Access to abortion

Advocates for reproductive justice such as SisterSong and Planned Parenthood believe that all women should be able to obtain a safe and affordable abortion if they desire one. Having safe, local, and affordable access to abortion services is a crucial part of ensuring high quality healthcare for women. Access to abortion services without restrictive barriers is a vital part of women's healthcare because "…induced abortion is among the most common medical procedures in the U.S…Nearly half of American women will have one or more in their lifetimes." Furthermore, these organizations point to studies that show that when access to abortion is prohibitive or difficult, abortions will inevitably be delayed, which increases risks to women's health and raises the cost of procedures. Increasing access to abortion in the U.S. will undoubtedly result in more women being able to obtain abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy. Procedures performed after 12 weeks of pregnancy may be costlier for women (and states) financially and medically, as waiting longer results in greater risks of medical complications and mortality than abortions performed earlier in pregnancy. The American Medical Association also echoes the importance of removing barriers to obtaining an early abortion, concluding that these barriers increase the gestational age at which the induced pregnancy termination occurs, thereby also increasing the risk associated with the procedure.

Minority groups experience poverty and high rates of pregnancy due to lack of available contraception. In addition, poor women are more likely to turn to unsafe abortion providers, and as a result, be hospitalized for complications related to the procedure than higher-income women. Organizations that promote reproductive justice such as NOW and Planned Parenthood aim to provide increased access to safe abortions at a low cost and without external pressure. They advocate increasing insurance coverage for abortions, decreasing the stigma and danger attached to receiving an abortion, eliminating parental notification for teens, training more physicians and clinics to provide safe abortions, and creating awareness about abortion.

Sex education

According to the website, The Pro-Choice Public Education Project, the U.S provides more funding towards Abstinence-only programs rather than Comprehensive sex education. From 1996 through 2007, Congress committed over $1.5 billion to abstinence-only programs. If funding is not provided towards sex education, students will not get the opportunity to learn about how to prevent pregnancy and STDs from occurring.

The website, Advocates for Youth, discusses abstinence-only education programs and how they are not effective at delaying the initiation of sexual activity or in reducing teen pregnancy. It attempts to prevent teens from engaging in sexual activities but this is ineffective and it makes teens more prone to engage in these activities with little to zero knowledge.

LGBTQ+ access to reproductive health services

Reproductive health services are limited to LGBTQ community as compared to heterosexuals. This is evident from the lower number of training hours offered to students going into the medical field in regards to the health problems faced by LGBTQ persons. Evidence also shows that once students complete training and become health care providers, they adopt heteronormative attitudes towards their patients. In addition to lower educational standards and evident clinical prejudice towards LGBTQ patients, there is also limited health research that is specifically applicable to LGBTQ community.

LGBTQ persons have been excluded in family planning programs, despite research showing that certain LGBTQ populations are at increased risk of STI transmission and subsequently could impact family planning. The FamilyPACT program in California was established in 1996 with the goal of helping low-income individuals (defined in this case as 200% of the Federal Poverty Limit) plan for children and maintain reproductive health. The program is directed towards those who have a medical need for family planning. This program does not serve men who have sex with men (MSM) or women who have sex with women (WSW), despite the risk of certain STIs leading to infertility.

LGBTQ+ and sexually transmitted diseases

LGBTQ persons are at higher risk than their heterosexual counterparts to contract STIs and HIV. Data from Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance show that LGBT youth more likely to have more than 3 sexual partners, are more likely to have sex before age 13, and about half as likely to use a condom during their last instance of sexual intercourse. An epidemiologic review suggest that men who have sex with men (MSM) have an elevated STI risk compared to men who have sex with women (MSW).

HIV is especially prevalent in transgender women. The CDC reported that of the 2,351 transgender people diagnosed with HIV in the United States from 2009 to 2014, 84% were transgender women and 15% were transgender men. In 2013, the CDC reported that percentage of transgender people who were newly diagnosed with HIV was 3 times higher than the national average.

Other causes

Because of the broad scope of the reproductive justice framework, reproductive justice activists are involved in organizing for a wide array of causes. These causes include movements for immigrant rights, labor rights, disability rights, LGBTQ rights, economic justice, and environmental justice. Other causes include organizing for comprehensive sex education, safe and affordable contraceptives, the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, and an end to violence against women and human trafficking.

International

United Nations involvement

Under the umbrella of the United Nations, there are several entities whose objectives relate to or promote reproductive justice. Among them, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women emphasizes the rights of women to reproductive health and to choose "the number and spacing" of their children, in addition to access of the resources that would allow them to do so. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment "has been interpreted to include denial of family planning services to women."

The United Nations also sponsors conferences and summits with the subject of the empowerment of women that have historically advanced the reproductive justice movement, such as the International Conference on Population and Development.

Conferences in Cairo and Beijing

The United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that took place in Cairo, Egypt in 1994 marked a "paradigm shift" to a set of policies on population that placed a high priority on the sexual and reproductive rights of women. Prior to the ICPD, international efforts to gauge population growth and to produce approaches that addressed its challenges focused on "strict and coercive" policy that included compulsory birth control and preferential access to health services by people who had been sterilized. The Programme of Action produced at the 1994 Cairo conference has been "heralded a departure from coercive fertility strategies" by insisting on the "fundamental rights of reproductive self determination and reproductive health care" and provided the ideological inspiration for grassroots organizations such as SisterSong in the United States to launch a movement for reproductive justice.

The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing followed the ICPD a year later, taking place in 1995, and producing a Platform for Action that advocated for the complete empowerment of all women. It charged states with the duty of ensuring the human rights of all women, among them sexual and reproductive health. The Beijing Platform for Action also promoted reproductive justice by calling on nations to reexamine laws that punished women for undergoing abortions.

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Declaration of September, 2000 and the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that emerged as a result of the declaration built on the framework for sexual and reproductive health rights the ICPD had put forth five years earlier. The third and fifth MDGs, to promote gender equality and empower women and to improve maternal health, respectively, embody the principles of reproductive justice through "the promotion of healthy, voluntary, and safe sexual and reproductive choices for individuals and couples, including such decisions as those on family size and timing of marriage." Indeed, the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit reiterates the connection between the Millennium Development Goals and their support of the many social factors that promote reproductive justice by committing the participating countries to:

"Achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015, as set out at the International Conference on Population and Development, integrating this goal in strategies to attain the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, aimed at reducing maternal mortality, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, promoting gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS and eradicating poverty."

Reproductive health has been related to the fulfillment of all eight Millennium Development Goals, and advocates of reproductive justice have noted that by extension, this last issue is also critical to include in strategies to meet the MDGs.

U.S. foreign policy

Organizations that promote reproductive justice have criticized several United States policies that aim to remedy international issues of reproductive health. Groups such as Georgetown's Law Students for Reproductive Justice have objected for example to the Mexico City Policy, also known by some critics as the Global Gag Rule. Although repealed by the Obama administration, this policy requires that non-governmental organizations that receive federal funding from the United States avoid promoting family planning and abortion services in reproductive health settings.

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is another contentious American program related to funding initiatives related to global reproductive health. The purpose of the program is to combat the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, but agencies such as the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) have called into question its effectiveness. Although these organizations recognize the gains made by US aid as a whole, they argue that the rigid structure of the PEPFAR funding hinders a holistic, community-appropriate strategy to reduce HIV/AIDS infections, and contend that the program is "laden with earmarks and restrictions from Washington that eliminate discretion for making funding decisions based on local realities and restrict alignment with European counterparts".

In particular, PEPFAR has been criticized for its partnerships in the past. Its critics feel it gives higher priority in funding distribution to faith-based organizations, including some "with little or no relevant international development experience" and some which promote abstinence instead of utilizing effective prevention methods. Critics argue that this policy approach, which has been nicknamed the ABC—Abstinence, Be faithful, Condom-use—approach poses a challenge to reproductive justice. Reproductive justice activists hold that such policies marginalize groups of people such as LGBTQ persons who may be discriminated against, as well as women who have been raped for whom "abstention is not an option".

Another policy that has been condemned by activists for reproductive justice is the Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath (APLO) produced in 2003. Required by the United States to grant funding to non-governmental organizations that work to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS internationally, this oath pledges to oppose sex trafficking and prostitution. Organizations that promote the empowerment of women such as the International Women's Health Coalition maintain that the oath is "stigmatizing and discriminatory" and that the groups of people opposed by the policy are precisely those who need help combating HIV/AIDS.

Rhetoric

Using the term reproductive justice instead of pro-choice, reproductive rights, or reproductive health, is a rhetorical choice. Robin West, professor of law and philosophy at Georgetown, explains that "pro-choice" court cases may have been lost because of how the issue was framed. For instance, she argues that "rights" rhetoric gives courts, specifically the Supreme Court, immense rhetorical power. Reproductive "health" often places power in the hands of doctors, medical professionals, and ability to access clinics. In this view, "rights" and "health" both refer to power being given to the people from a top-down perspective. As a response, the "justice" frame is meant to put power back into the hands of the people.

Although distinct from pro-choice frameworks, reproductive justice advocates typically rely on narrative as a rhetorical strategy to mobilize consensus. These narratives centralize women's stories and decision-making, similar to Tiller's "Trust Women" argument mentioned above. It also relies on public memory of feminist movements because it links women's stories across time and space. Narratives also explain the warrant, or why people are organizing. Narratives are used because they are more personal than abstract policy decisions and put a human face on political issues. While feminist narratives emphasize women's stories and experiences, reproductive justice narratives focus on women of color as rhetorical agents. They are situated as the experts. For social justice issues, narratives operate on two levels: (1) individual narratives as a rights-gaining strategy and (2) narratives about social justice or activist movements.

For rhetoricians, Celeste Condit's book on abortion discourse helps put pro-life and pro-choice ideologies in conversation. Her book, Decoding Abortion Rhetoric: Communicating Social Change (1990), was released before reproductive justice was created but it is a heavily-cited starting point for understanding how rhetoric shapes abortion debates. Some people believe that rhetoric is opposed to action and therefore less useful, but Condit shows how reality is made through rhetoric and how rhetoric is the key to communicating social change.

A rhetoric of reproductive justice has not been theorized, but discussing reproductive justice often uses women's stories of oppression to try to change perceptions of reproduction. It is about more than just abortion rights and opposes media and organizational messaging that only see reproduction in terms of abortion.

Because reproductive justice is tied to community well-being, Kathleen M. de Onı´s 2012 article in Environmental Communication argues that reproductive justice should be understood alongside environmental justice and climate change.

See also

• Black feminism
• Choice USA
• Compulsory sterilization
• Environmental racism
• Health disparities
• imMEDIAte Justice Productions
• INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
• Intersectionality theory
• National Black Women's Health Project
• National Women's Health Network
• Reproductive health

Sources

• "A New Vision for Advancing Our Movement for Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, and Reproductive Justice" (PDF). Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice. Oakland: 1–2, 7. 2005.
• Ross, Loretta (2006). "Understanding Reproductive Justice: Transforming the Pro-Choice Movement". Off Our Backs. 36 (4): 14–19.
• Price, Kimala (2010). "What is Reproductive Justice?: How Women of Color Activists Are Redefining the Pro-Choice Paradigm". Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. 10 (2): 42–65. doi:10.2979/meridians.2010.10.2.42.
• Sanger, Alexander (2004). Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom In The 21st Century. New York City: PublicAffairs. pp. 19–47. ISBN 978-1586481162.
• Smith, Andrea (2005). "Beyond Pro-Choice versus Pro-Life: Women of Color and Reproductive Justice" (PDF). NWSA Journal. 17 (1): 119–140. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.552.2054. doi:10.2979/NWS.2005.17.1.119.
• Alagiri, Priya; Collins, Chris; Morin, Stephen F.; Summers, Todd (2002). "Abstinence Only vs. Comprehensive Sex Education: What Are the Arguments?". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• What is the Evidence? San Francisco: AIDS Policy Research Center & Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California
• Correa, Sonia; Petchesky, Rosalind (2013). Carole R. McCann; Seung-Kyung Kim (ed.). Reproductive and Sexual Rights: A Feminist Perspective (3rd ed.). Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. pp. 88–102. ISBN 978-0415521024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
• Chandler, Cynthia (2013). "Death & Dying in America: The Prison Industrial Complex's Impact on Women's Health". Berkeley Women's Law. 18 (1): 40.
• Clarke, Jennifer G.; Rosengard, Cynthia; Rose, Jennifer S.; Hebert, Megan R.; Peipert, Jeffrey; Stein, Michael D. (2006). "Improving birth control service utilization by offering services prerelease vs postincarceration". American Journal of Public Health. 96 (5): 840–5. doi:10.2105/ajph.2005.062869. PMC 1470571. PMID 16571698.
• Sufrin, Carolyn B.; Creinin, Mitchell D.; Chang, Judy C. (2010). "Emergency contraception for newly arrested women: Evidence for an unrecognized public health opportunity". Journal of Urban Health. 87 (2): 244–253. doi:10.1007/s11524-009-9418-8. PMC 2845828. PMID 20012702.
• Sufrin, Carolyn B.; Creinin, Mitchell D.; Chang, Judy C. (2009). "Contraception services for incarcerated women: a national survey of correctional health providers". Contraception. 80 (6): 561–565. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2009.05.126. PMID 19913150.
• Levi, Robin (2006). "Doing What Is Medically Necessary". Off Our Backs. 36 (4): 77–81. Archived from the original on 2016-09-10. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Denbow, Jennifer M. (2015). Governed through Choice: Autonomy, Technology, and the Politics of Reproduction. New York City: New York University Press. pp. 141–142. ISBN 978-1479843916.
• Sufrin, Carolyn B.; Creinin, Mitchell D.; Chang, Judy C. (2009). "Incarcerated women and abortion provision: a survey of correctional health providers". Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 41 (1): 6–11. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.615.1348. doi:10.1363/4100609. PMID 19291123.
• Fried, M.G. (2000). "Abortion in the United States: Barriers to Access". Health and Human Rights. 4 (2): 174–194. doi:10.2307/4065200. JSTOR 4065200.
• Springer, Sandra A. (January 2010). "Improving healthcare for incarcerated women no access". Journal of Women's Health. 19 (1): 13–15. doi:10.1089/jwh.2009.1786. PMC 2828190. PMID 20088653. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Oswalt, Krista; Hale, G.J.; Cropsey, K.L.; Villalobos, G.C.; Ivey, S.E.; Matthews, C.A. (August 2010). "The contraceptive needs for STD protection among women in jail". Health Education & Behavior. 37 (4): 568–579. doi:10.1177/1090198110362467. PMID 20705810. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Harper, Cynthia C.; Henderson, Jillian T.; Darney, Philip D. (2005). "Abortion in the United States". Annual Review of Public Health. 26: 501–512. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.26.021304.144351. PMID 15760299.
• Poggi, Stephanie. "The Hyde Amendment Violates Reproductive Justice and Discriminates against Poor Women and Women of Color". Reproductive Justice Briefing Book. Berkeley, California. p. 14. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
• Crane, Barbara B.; Smith, C.E.H. (2006). "Access to Safe Abortion: An essential strategy for achieving the millennium development goals to improve maternal health, promote gender equality, and reduce poverty" (PDF). Public Choices, Private Decisions: Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals: 8, 21, 23.
• Boyd-Judson, Lyn (2013). Women's Global Health: Norms and State Policies. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. p. 73. ISBN 978-0739188880.
• Swinski, June Samuel (2007). Adapting to Norms at the United Nations: The Abortion-rights and Anti-abortion Networks. Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest. p. 254. ISBN 978-0549451051.
• Drey, MD, Eleanor; Foster, Diana; Jackson, MD, Rebecca; Lee, S.J.; Cardenas, L.H.; Darney, MD, Philip (2006). "Risk factors associated with presenting for abortion in the second trimester". Obstetrics & Gynecology. 107 (1): 128–134. doi:10.1097/01.aog.0000189095.32382.d0. PMID 16394050.
• Crane, Barbara B.; Smith, C.E.H. (2006). "Access to Safe Abortion: An essential strategy for achieving the millennium development goals to improve maternal health, promote gender equality, and reduce poverty" (PDF). Public Choices, Private Decisions: Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals: 95.
• Ross, Loretta (2007). "WHAT IS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE?". Reproductive Justice Briefing Book: A Primer on Reproductive Justice and Social Change. Berkeley, California: UC Berkeley School of Law: 4–5, 11–12, 14, 21.
• Rossi, Alice S. (1988). The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir. Lebanon, New Hampshire: Northeastern University Press. pp. 138–139, 533. ISBN 978-1555530280.
• Kirk, Gwyn; Okazawa-Rey, Margo (2012). Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspective (6th ed.). New York City: McGraw-Hill Education. pp. 247–250. ISBN 978-0073512341.
• Sanger, Margaret (2010). Woman and the New Race. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing. pp. 93–100. ISBN 978-1162717623. Archived book from 1920 New York City: McGraw-Hill Education
• Silliman, Jael; Gerber Fried, Marlene; Ross, Loretta; Gutierrez, Elena R. (2004). Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice. Brooklyn: South End Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0896087293.
• "SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective" (PDF). SisterSong. Atlanta. p. 4. Retrieved April 16, 2008.

External links

• Forward Together (formerly Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice)
• California Latinas for Reproductive Justice
• SPARK! Reproductive Justice NOW
• Black Women for Reproductive Justice
• Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights
• National Asian Women's Health Organization
• National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
• Forward Together (formerly Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice)
• Loretta Ross Papers at Smith College Archives