"We can't really say that word out here...”: Grassroots Rural Social Control of Reproductive Justice, Healthcare, and Service Provision

• In Event: Rural Policing and Social Control

Abstract

Rural reproductive health and service accessibility are impacted by tense – typically conflicting – political discourse and activism. Coupled with irregular service provision and sometimes-literal nonexistence of nearby services, rural regions are seeing intensified formal and informal social control, policing, surveillance, and criminalization of service provision. Leveraging data from a mixed methods rural community health needs assessment, this paper uncovers some of the lived realities of navigating and providing rural reproductive healthcare. Responses from rural service providers and community members reveal stark tensions between needing a wide range of reproductive healthcare services, community-level concerns about the lack of services, political and religious belief systems that dictate feelings about services and providers, and an inherent secrecy around reproductive justice that shapes tight-knit relationships found in rural communities. This context is significant and concerning; interdisciplinary scholarship demonstrates that, without regular, convenient, unrestricted access to reproductive healthcare, rural communities, in particular, see drastic increases in unintended pregnancies, increases in maternal mortality, higher rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), long-term strain on individual and community-level economic stability, higher rates of mental illness, and higher rates of poverty. This paper contends with these realities and offers recommendations for creative paths to bolster rural reproductive justice.

Authors

• Amy Magnus, California State University, Chico

• Kiley Cope, California State University, Chico