REPRODUCTIVEJUSTICEASASYSTEMICISSUE

By Savannah Fesler

Reproductive justice has been a hot topic, especially in the U.S., for the last few years, but it has been a problem for a lot longer than that. A lot of people view reproductive justice as a sensitive subject because society doesn't want to talk about the injustice and the issues with the system Even politicians, the ones making these laws that restrict reproductive rights, don't want to talk about the issue. This seems to be a recurring problem when discussing women ’ s rights, no one wants to talk about it because if we don’t talk about it then it’s not a problem. If we started to just bring up these issues then there would be more solutions. To really make progress on this issue there needs to be a new framework created that promotes all aspects of reproductive justice. If we just look past the superficial idea that it’s a woman's problem then real change can happen.

In order to be able to solve the issues in the fight for reproductive justice we first need to understand what reproductive justice really is. Lorretta Ross explains reproductive justice as a “Link between sexuality, health, and human rights.”(Ross, 221). That is a really straight to the point definition but it seems like politicians are still missing the point. Reproductive justice isn’t just about abortion and that it something that a lot of people don’t understand. This misconception of reproductive justice can be traced back to our patriarchal society We think that the word justice in the context of reproduction relates only to women and takes away from men. The misconception stems from just the lack of understanding and education, our patriarchal society sets it up to where women are the scapegoat. In Understanding Reproductive Justice, Ross states that, “Reproductive Justice is, in fact, a paradigm shift beyond demanding gender equality or attaching abortion rights to a broader reproductive health agenda.”(Ross,221) Essentially what Ross is saying here is, reproductive justice goes beyond the surface level thinking of abortion rights and equality, but it goes deeper into the root of these inequalities and demands justice for women of color, nonconsensual sterilization and birth control for all genders. In the article What do men have to do with reproductive rights, they discuss how male birth control is being developed and vasectomies are cheaper and reversible, these are just a few ways that reproductive rights involve men.(Promundo) Men are just as involved but society makes it seem like a woman's issue but it’s really a human rights issue I would even argue that this societal view comes from a place of control.

Control over women's bodies is the root of the problem here and that is shown in the nonconsensual sterilizations that some of these doctors are performing on women and more specifically women of color.

In the book Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement Jennifer Nelson shares the horrific story of Guadalupe Acosta Guadalupe was a “Poor Mexican woman ” that gave birth to a baby that died shortly after. At a postnatal check-up Guadalupe asked to go on the pill, but her doctor informed her that she would not be needing to go on the pill because she could no longer get pregnant. Her doctor had performed a sterilization procedure on her after she had given birth without her consent, claiming that her husband signed an agreement. Guadalupe’s husband did not sign anything.(Nelson,1) Unfortunately there are many stories like Guadalupes out there and it all comes back to the patriarchal system and the lack of respect for human rights

To really understand how reproductive rights intersect with human rights, I think that Ross does a good job of breaking down human rights into eight different categories that put human rights into a more focused perspective. These eight different rights that make up human rights as defined by Ross are; civil, political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, developmental, and sexual rights Now first thought would be that reproductive justice has to do with sexual rights but does not really relate to the other seven categories, but I would argue that reproductive rights has to do with every single one of the eight categories. Civil and Political rights have a huge role in reproductive justice, some would define reproductive justice as a political/civil fight. Seeing the economic aspect of reproductive justice may be a little more difficult because economics is not the first thing you would think of when thinking of reproductive justice, but it is actually an essential part Nelson states a good explanation of economic oppression related to reproductive justice by saying “These fundamentalist attacks on women ’ s economic access to abortion is further evidence that a woman ’ s income and economic assets determined her ability to control her reproduction in a capitalist society.”(Nelson,135)

Social and cultural rights are somewhat more of an obvious part of reproductive justice because culture and society are the fueling force behind these problems. Environmental rights and developmental rights have a significant part in reproductive justice because the environment someone was raised in and developed in will greatly impact how they view the world. Knowing how human rights affect reproductive justice lays the foundation for finding the problem.

The goal for reproductive rights is fairly simple: address the problem with the system and fix the framework to make sure that laws are enacted to protect the right to reproductive health care(Ross, 224) Talking about changing the framework is so much easier than actually doing it though. Changing the framework of a system has to start from the want for change by the people. In order to promote change, education of the subject and awareness of the issue has to happen. When looking at the reproductive justice movements there is a common issue that acts as a gateway to other issues and that’s abortion. Bell Hooks makes a very bold but necessary statement about the abortion abolition movements, “The anti-choice movement is fundamentally antifeminist ”(Hooks,29) Now this may come off as an aggressive approach, but it has gotten to the point where walking on eggshells isn’t going to work.

The knowledge of the legal issues around abortions is typically a way that people gain knowledge of reproductive justice as a whole, but the problem with that is there shouldn’t have to be an antiabortion movement happening for people to start caring about reproductive justice. If awareness can start being raised on other issues pertaining to reproductive justice then solutions can be found. In order for framework change, legal change and the recognition of the relation to human rights must happen. No more holding back, these issues have been pushed aside long enough, it is time for a systemic change.

References

Hooks, Bell. “OUR BODIES, OURSELVES Reproductive Rights . ” Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, Routledge, New York, NY, 2015, pp 25–30

Nelson, Jennifer. Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York University Press, 2003.

Promundo-US. “What Do Men Have to Do with Women's Reproductive Rights?” Girls' Globe, 10 Aug 2017, https://www girlsglobe org/2017/08/10/womens-reproductive-rights-men/

Ross, Loretta, et al. Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique. Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2017.

Ross, Loretta, et al. “Understanding Reproductive Justice.” Gendered Lives: Intersectional Perspectives, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2020, pp 221–226