\u201cReproductive rights\u201d let a person decide whether they want to have children, use contraception, or terminate a pregnancy. Reproductive rights also include access to sex education and reproductive health services. Throughout history, the reproductive rights of women in particular have been restricted. Girls and women today still face significant challenges. In places that have seen reproductive rights expand, protections are rolling back. Here are ten essential essays about reproductive rights:<\/p>\n
bell hooks This essay opens strong: when the modern feminism movement started, the most important issues were the ones linked to highly-educated and privileged white women. The sexual revolution led the way, with \u201cfree love\u201d as shorthand for having as much sex as someone wanted with whoever they wanted. This naturally led to the issue of unwanted pregnancies. Birth control and abortions were needed.<\/p>\n Sexual freedom isn\u2019t possible without access to safe, effective birth control and the right to safe, legal abortion. However, other reproductive rights like prenatal care and sex education were not as promoted due to class bias. Including these other rights more prominently might have, in hooks\u2019 words, \u201cgalvanized the masses.\u201d The right to abortion in particular drew the focus of mass media. Including other reproductive issues would mean a full reckoning about gender and women\u2019s bodies. The media wasn\u2019t (and arguably still isn\u2019t) ready for that.<\/p>\n Angela Davis Davis\u2019 essay covers the birth control movement in detail, including its race-based history. Davis argues that birth control always included racism due to the belief that poor women (specifically poor Black and immigrant women) had a \u201cmoral obligation\u201d to birth fewer children. Race was also part of the movement from the beginning because only wealthy white women could achieve the goals (like more economic and political freedom) driving access to birth control.<\/p>\n In light of this history, Davis emphasizes that the fight for reproductive freedom hasn\u2019t led to equal victories. In fact, the movements driving the gains women achieved actively neglected racial inequality. One clear example is how reproductive rights groups ignored forced sterilization within communities of color. Davis ends her essay with a call to end sterilization abuse.<\/p>\n Dorothy Roberts Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body<\/em> and Fatal Invention<\/em>, describes attending the March for Women\u2019s Lives. She was especially happy to be there because co-sponsor SisterSong (a collective founded by 16 organizations led by women of color) shifted the focus from \u201cchoice\u201d to \u201csocial justice.\u201d Why does this matter? Roberts argues that the rhetoric of \u201cchoice\u201d favors women who have options that aren\u2019t available to low-income women, especially women of color. Conservatives face criticism for their stance on reproductive rights, but liberals also cause harm when they frame birth control as the solution to global \u201coverpopulation\u201d or lean on fetal anomalies as an argument for abortion choice.<\/p>\n Instead of “the right to choose,” a reproductive justice framework is necessary. This requires a living wage, universal healthcare, and prison abolition. Reproductive justice goes beyond the current pro-choice\/anti-choice rhetoric that still favors the privileged.<\/p>\n Loretta J. Ross, SisterSong White supremacy in the United States has always created different outcomes for its ethnic populations. The method? Population control. Ross points out that even a glance at reproductive politics in the headlines makes it clear that some women are encouraged to have more children while others are discouraged. Ross defines \u201creproductive justice,\u201d which goes beyond the concept of \u201crights.\u201d Reproductive justice is when reproductive rights are \u201cembedded in a human rights and social justice framework.\u201d<\/p>\n In the essay, Ross explores topics like white supremacy and population control on both the right and left sides of politics. She acknowledges that while the right is often blunter in restricting women of color and their fertility, white supremacy is embedded in both political aisles. The essay closes with a section on mobilizing for reproductive justice, describing SisterSong (where Ross is a founding member) and the March for Women\u2019s Lives in 2004.<\/p>\n Sachiko Ragosta Cisgender women are the focus of abortion and reproductive health services even though nonbinary and trans people access these services all the time. In their essay, Ragosta describes the criticism Ibis Reproductive Health received when it used the term \u201cpregnant people.\u201d The term alienates women, the critics said, but acting as if only cis women need reproductive care is simply inaccurate. As Ragosta writes, no one is denying that cis women experience pregnancy. The reaction to more inclusive language around pregnancy and abortion reveals a clear bias against trans people.<\/p>\n Normalizing terms like \u201cpregnant people\u201d help spaces become more inclusive, whether it\u2019s in research, medical offices, or in day-to-day life. Inclusiveness leads to better health outcomes, which is essential considering the barriers nonbinary and gender-expansive people face in general and sexual\/reproductive care.<\/p>\n Karla Mendez Mendez, a freelance writer and (and the time of the essay\u2019s publication) a student studying Interdisciplinary Studies, Political Science, and Women\u2019s and Gender Studies, responds to the Texas abortion ban. Terms like \u201creproductive rights\u201d and \u201cabortion rights\u201d are part of the mainstream white feminist movement, but the benefits of birth control and abortions are not equal. Also, as the Texas ban shows, these benefits are not secure. In the face of this reality, it\u2019s essential to center Black people of all genders.<\/p>\n In her essay, Mendez describes recent restrictive legislation and the failure of the reproductive rights movement to address anti-Blackness, transphobia, food insecurity, and more. Groups like SisterSong have led the way on reproductive justice. As reproductive rights are eroded in the United States, the reproductive rights movement needs to focus on justice.<\/p>\n Mary Lee Bendolph One of Mary Lee Bendolph\u2019s<\/a> quilt designs appears as the cover of Radical Reproductive Justice. She was one of the most important strip quilters associated with Gee\u2019s Bend, Alabama. During the Civil Rights era, the 700 residents of Gee\u2019s Bend were isolated and found it hard to vote or gain educational and economic power outside the village. Bendolph\u2019s work didn\u2019t become well-known outside her town until the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n Through an interview by the Souls Grown Foundation, we learn that Bendolph didn\u2019t receive any sex education as a girl. When she became pregnant in sixth grade, she had to stop attending school. \u201cThey say it was against the law for a lady to go to school and be pregnant,\u201d she said, because it would influence the other kids. \u201cSoon as you have a baby, you couldn\u2019t never go to school again.\u201d<\/p>\n Alejandra Marks While short, this essay provides a good introduction to abortion activism in Brazil, where abortion is legal only in the case of rape, fetal anencephaly, or when a woman\u2019s life is at risk. The reader meets “Ta\u00eds,” a single mother faced with an unwanted pregnancy. With no legal options, she researched methods online, including teas and pills. She eventually connected with a lawyer and activist who walked her through using Cytotec, a medication she got online. The activist stayed on the phone while Ta\u00eds completed her abortion at home.<\/p>\n For decades, Latin American activists have helped pregnant people get abortion medications while wealthy Brazilians enter private clinics or travel to other countries. Government intimidation makes activism risky, but the stakes are high. Hundreds of Brazilians die each year from dangerous abortion methods. In the past decade, religious conservatives in Congress have blocked even mild reform. Even if a new president is elected, Brazil\u2019s abortion rights movement will fight an uphill battle.<\/p>\n
\nPublished in Feminism Is For Everyone<\/em> (2014)<\/p>\n\u201cRacism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
\nPublished in Women, Race, & Class <\/em>(1981)<\/p>\n\u201cReproductive Justice, Not Just Rights\u201d <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
\nPublished in Dissent Magazine (2015)<\/p>\n\u201cThe Color of Choice: White Supremacy and Reproductive Justice\u201d <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
\nPublished in Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology<\/em> (2016)<\/p>\n\u201cAbortion Care Is Not Just For Cis Women\u201d <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
\nPublished in Ms. Magazine (2021)<\/p>\n\u201cWe Cannot Leave Black Women, Trans People, and Gender Expansive People Behind: Why We Need Reproductive Justice\u201d <\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nPublished in Black Women Radicals<\/p>\n\u201cGee\u2019s Bend: A Reproductive Justice Quilt Story From the South\u201d <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
\nPublished in Radical Reproductive Justice<\/em> (2017)<\/p>\n\u201cUnderground Activists in Brazil Fight for Women\u2019s Reproductive Rights\u201d <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
\nPublished in The North American Congress on Latin America (2021)<\/p>\n\u201cThe Ambivalent Activist\u201d <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n