Abortion Explained!
Reproductive Justice
SisterSong, an organizational founder of reproductive justice, defines 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 is a human rights framework founded by Black women in 1994 to address the social, political, and economic impact of our society on marginalized people and the pursuit of reproductive freedom.
Comparatively, reproductive rights, as a framework, focuses on the legal ability of someone to be able to access services, and uses litigation and policymaking to effect change, but doesn’t look at dismantling the systemic issues that created the problem in the first place.
The framework.
Reproductive justice as a framework reflects the ways racism, anti-Blackness, xenophobia, misogyny, capitalism, white supremacy, structural inequity, and ableism contribute to the erasure and marginalization of people seeking reproductive healthcare and the ability to create families on their own terms. Reproductive justice strives for a world where people have access to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare—including abortion contraception, prenatal, gynecological, and gender-affirming care, and comprehensive sex education—as well as a world free from state-sanctioned violence and government systems that coerce and harm families. The vision of reproductive justice cannot be achieved without racial and economic equity, and the ability to decide if, when, and how to grow our families.
As we’re discussing the systemic issues at play, we must also recognize how our ancestors have thrived over generations and suffered through exploitation, and how those histories live within our bodies, are repeated in our society, and impact the stereotypes and stigmas that still persist. We cannot forget how the creation of reproductive care like gynecology and the birth control pill were created on the exploitation of Black enslaved women and Puerto Rican women’s bodies, respectively, and think about how that shows up in access to care today. Reproductive justice requires us to look at the inequities in our communities and how they impact our ability to create our families, such as lack of clean water or police brutality and the use of tear gas contributing to miscarriages.
Reproductive justice demands that we fight for equitable access to care, not solely the legal right, and we must address the reasons accessibility doesn’t look or feel the same for everyone. When thinking about abortion access, and access to reproductive healthcare overall, we need to reflect on the systemic reasons why some of us face additional barriers solely because of our identities and ensure our voices are centered in activism, lawmaking, and social change.
Reproductive justice looks like people having the tools to be able to make the choice about if, when, how, why they want to start a family. Or if, when, how, why they don’t. That they can keep that family safe. That they can provide for those kids. That they can have health care for those children. The easiest way to explain it is just: freedom. Actually. Not the Americanized bullshit, respectability version of it. We’re not here for respectability politics. We’re here to shake the table.
That’s what young people do.”
— We Testify storyteller Jordyn Close
We Testify believes in reproductive justice.
That’s why We Testify is dedicated to the leadership and representation of people who’ve had abortions—particularly those of use who experienced multiple barriers related to our identities and structural inequity. Using a reproductive justice lens in our abortion storytelling means we not only share our abortion stories but also that we talk about the various identities we hold and experiences we’ve had in our lives that shaped our decision. As we testify to our abortions, we speak to how our immigration experiences, time incarcerated, or gender identities shaped our decision, our access, the barriers we faced, and how we move through this world.
People who have abortions are the experts of our own lives. We all deserve the right to safely and affordably access abortion in our own community, free from restrictions and harassment. We deserve access to healthcare providers who trust and believe us, free from the fear of being misgendered, misunderstood, or separated from our families because of racist, ableist, and discriminatory healthcare practices and providers.
When reproductive justice is achieved, we’ll all be able to make our own pregnancy decisions without worrying about how much money we have or whether we can handle it all because all of the supports we need to thrive will be at our fingertips. Only then will our decisions be free from community, economic, and government coercion and truly be focused on what we want for ourselves and our futures.
In a reproductively just world, all pregnancy decisions will be met with love and respect. The decisions are based on what you want for your life and you have all the time and loving support you need to make your decision for you.
“We need people who have lived experiences and are relatable to feel safe and affirmed. The abortion experiences of a Black woman/person will be very different from those of a white woman/person. Truth is, had I not met with a Black nurse that day at the clinic when I found out I was threatening to rupture my right fallopian tube, things may have gone very differently. That experience changed the course of my life and from that I was able to be there for Black people seeking abortions just the same.”
— Kenya Martin, We Testify storyteller in ELLE