The Forgotten Voice: The Importance of Reproductive Justice for Women of Color and Other Unrepresented Groups
The desire to conceive and start a family is a fundamental right for any woman within any region of the world. The right and ability to have children is defined by reproductive justice, which connects basic human rights, health, and sexuality to reproductive health issues concerning women, families, and communities of color. Reproductive justice stems from the issues that women of color face when they experience unexpected pregnancies, attempt to start a family, or when seeking abortive procedures/ family planning services (assessing how many children a family can afford to have and raise). However, radical-right wing republican governments …show more content…
As a byproduct of this movement, in 1997 the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, was created to increase awareness on the issue of reproductive justice. The organization, strives to strengthen and embolden the voices of disenfranchised women in protecting their basic human rights. The founder of this organization, Loretta J. Ross, articulates the need and power of reproductive justice through her article, “The Color of Choice: White Supremacy and Reproductive Justice”. Throughout this article she describes the effects of white-supremacist ideologies against reproductive justice among women of color, through messages from the government, media, and society. The white-supremacist rhetoric that western-scientists use when discussing issues of the environment and the global population often proclaim that the world is “overpopulated” and pressuring developing nations to undergo “population-control” policies. Ross elaborates on this white-supremacist rhetoric by stating that, “[p]opulation control policies are externally imposed by governments, corporations or private agencies to control – by increasing or limiting – population growth and behavior, usually by controlling women’s reproduction and fertility” (Ross 2). Imposing population control strategies on marginalized groups intentionally threat the reproduction and fertility …show more content…
Feminists and other advocates for the pro-choice movement have latched onto the fight that marginalized women face, since the formation of the reproductive justice movement. Although pro-choice advocates support any decision that women may choose, regarding her pregnancy the Pro-Choice model, often does not include the voices of women of color, poor women, or disabled women and neither does it share the same experiences. Kimala Price, author of the article, “What is Reproductive Justice? How Women of Color Activists Are Redefining the Pro-Choice Paradigm”, discusses this phenomenon and how activists in the reproductive justice movement are frustrated through, the ‘choice’ rhetoric of the movement, which is solely based on the perceptions of a small group of privileged women who have more options in terms of the reproductive health than other groups of women (Price 46). The problematic effect of the pro-choice movement on marginalized women misrepresents the struggles that these women face when attempting to conceive, gain access to birth control/ family planning resources, and seeking safe abortive procedures. Typically, the women associated with the mainstream pro-choice movement are privileged women of middle to high socio-economic status who can easily access all of the necessary resources for
The desire to conceive and start a family is a fundamental right for any woman within any region of the world. The right and ability to have children is defined by reproductive justice, which connects basic human rights, health, and sexuality to reproductive health issues concerning women, families, and communities of color. Reproductive justice stems from the issues that women of color face when they experience unexpected pregnancies, attempt to start a family, or when seeking abortive procedures/ family planning services (assessing how many children a family can afford to have and raise). However, radical-right wing republican governments …show more content…
As a byproduct of this movement, in 1997 the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, was created to increase awareness on the issue of reproductive justice. The organization, strives to strengthen and embolden the voices of disenfranchised women in protecting their basic human rights. The founder of this organization, Loretta J. Ross, articulates the need and power of reproductive justice through her article, “The Color of Choice: White Supremacy and Reproductive Justice”. Throughout this article she describes the effects of white-supremacist ideologies against reproductive justice among women of color, through messages from the government, media, and society. The white-supremacist rhetoric that western-scientists use when discussing issues of the environment and the global population often proclaim that the world is “overpopulated” and pressuring developing nations to undergo “population-control” policies. Ross elaborates on this white-supremacist rhetoric by stating that, “[p]opulation control policies are externally imposed by governments, corporations or private agencies to control – by increasing or limiting – population growth and behavior, usually by controlling women’s reproduction and fertility” (Ross 2). Imposing population control strategies on marginalized groups intentionally threat the reproduction and fertility …show more content…
Feminists and other advocates for the pro-choice movement have latched onto the fight that marginalized women face, since the formation of the reproductive justice movement. Although pro-choice advocates support any decision that women may choose, regarding her pregnancy the Pro-Choice model, often does not include the voices of women of color, poor women, or disabled women and neither does it share the same experiences. Kimala Price, author of the article, “What is Reproductive Justice? How Women of Color Activists Are Redefining the Pro-Choice Paradigm”, discusses this phenomenon and how activists in the reproductive justice movement are frustrated through, the ‘choice’ rhetoric of the movement, which is solely based on the perceptions of a small group of privileged women who have more options in terms of the reproductive health than other groups of women (Price 46). The problematic effect of the pro-choice movement on marginalized women misrepresents the struggles that these women face when attempting to conceive, gain access to birth control/ family planning resources, and seeking safe abortive procedures. Typically, the women associated with the mainstream pro-choice movement are privileged women of middle to high socio-economic status who can easily access all of the necessary resources for