What is reproductive justice?

According to SisterSong, Reproductive Justice (RJ) is the “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” It’s about way more than just abortion rights (though that is unapologetically a part of it). RJ is rooted in the human rights framework and is ultimately about the right to bodily autonomy and self-determination. RJ also centers the most marginalized communities and actively works to dismantle systems of oppression that historically have made it so that a choice is not always possible for marginalized communities.

500 Women Scientists’ mission is to “to serve society by making science open, inclusive, and accessible, and to help transform society by fighting racism, patriarchy, and oppressive societal norms.” By providing tools for incorporating the Reproductive Justice framework into our scientific communities, our goal is to reimagine best practices and future directions for science and research. We launched a 4-part webinar series to delve into the RJ framework facilitated by Jalessah Jackson, M.S., an Educational Equity & Anti-Oppression Consultant.

WEBINAR Content

INTRODUCTION TO REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

This webinar covered:

  • A brief history of reproductive oppression and the birth of the RJ movement

  • An introduction to the Reproductive Justice framework and its core principles

  • An understanding of intersectionality as a socio-political power analysis

  • How to incorporate RJ principles into our everyday lives

INTERSECTION OF REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE AND LGBTQIA+

This webinar covered:

  • The intersections of LGBTQ liberation and reproductive justice issues

  • The Queering RJ and LGBTQ liberation frameworks queer as a practice of “queering,” and how we can queer our ideas of what reproductive justice represents and encompasses

  • The needs of transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary (TGNC), and the reproductive oppression faced by this community

ENVIRONMENTAL REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE AND THE IMPACT OF COVID-19

This webinar covered:

  • Reproductive justice and Environmental Justice as overlapping issues

  • How RJ and EJ movements must work collectively to address EJ issues (especially in the U.S. South, where the movement was born) with close attention to injustices related to race, gender, and class

  • The correlation between healthy environments and healthy communities across the globe

  • How the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 is a RJ issue

HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

This webinar covered:

  • The intertwining histories of science, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice movements

  • The relationship between science, legislation, and social movements, including the responsibility of science to inform radical social movements

  • Understanding intersectionality as a socio-political power analysis

  • Thinking critically of the ways that the RJ framework may be incorporated within individual lives as well as scientific design and practice

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