Indigenous Reproductive Justice

IIndigenous people’s fight for reproductive justice is embedded in decolonial struggles. For Indigenous folks the right or not to have children and the right to raise them in a safe and healthy environment have been violated since colonisation and it continues to be violated.

Genocidal intentions result in violations of the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous women. Although it is often described as a past issue, Indigenous women and two-spirit people are still subject coerced sterilization, long-term contraceptives and abortion (McKenzie et al., 2022).

In Canada and the United States, the figure of the Indigenous mother has been presented as an intrinsically unfit mother based on colonialist, racist and eugenicist ideologies. Their bodies play a key role in the reproduction and lives of Indigenous folks and as such it has been targeted for social control by settler colonial governments.