Meanings of Reproductive Justice among System-Impacted Women in Ohio and Oregon.

• In Event: Gender, Race, and the Carceral State: Paths to Justice and Reform

Abstract

We present a first analysis of semi-structured narrative interviews of women with arrest histories (n=71), conducted in person, online, or by phone) to inquire about their access to contraception, whether they embrace or regret their contraceptive choices, and if any justice system coercion was involved in their decision-making process. This is the first subset of interviews from a larger comparative project shedding light on the meanings of reproductive justice for women and girls affected by the criminal legal system in Ohio and Oregon, applying the framework of reproductive justice (Luna, 2020; Ross & Solinger, 2017). With the steady expansion of the criminal justice system’s reach in the lives of women, especially in the lives of women of color, the justice system plays a growing role in family planning decisions as well as the ability to parent or access abortion and birth control. Women of color in the criminal legal system have a particularly complicated and painful history through the promotion of LARCs (long-acting reversible methods of contraception) and sterilization in carceral settings (Lira, 2021; Littlejohn, 2021), while access to appropriate healthcare and abortions is increasingly criminalized for the general population in the “post Dobbs” scenario.

Authors

• Daniela Jauk-Ajamie, The University of Akron

• Melissa Thompson, Portland State University