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C O N T E N T S
Marginalized women, trans and non-binary folks, and disabled communities have long since been fighting for reproductive justice though sometimes through the use of other language. Women of colour’s fight for reproductive autonomy goes beyond reproductive rights to achieve reproductive justice. Reproductive justice recognizes systemic issues, such as reproductive oppression based on racist, classist, cissexist, ableist ideologies, as structural barriers to the reproductive freedom of all people.
"Reproductive justice,” a term formally coined in 1994 by the group Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, works to recognize the needs of marginalized groups restricted by systemic oppressions through critically and intersectionality analyzing power systems
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Reproductive justice recognizes “ that the women’s rights movement, led by and representing middle class and wealthy white women, could not defend the needs of women of colour and other marginalized women and trans* people.” (Sister Song)
In particular, there is a critique of the liberal individual rights framework adopted by the mainstream white feminism movement. Centering reproductive autonomy on the individual rights to abortion does not account for the lived experiences of people of colour, because it does not address issues of accessibility of healthcare and coercive power dynamics.
Where reproductive rights centre the fight for individual legal rights to services, reproductive justice highlights accessibility. Further, reproductive justice includes the right to have or to not have children, and to raise them in safe and healthy environments.
Scholar-Activism
It is important to conceptualize scholaractivism and conclude that sociological research must facilitate social action- that which links individual scholarship and activism more expansive community aims: a belief that Black feminist sociology has held for centuries.
It is very important to understand the value of scholarship and activism and the rejection of their separation, particularly in conversation surrounding reproductive justice.
