Beyond Reproductive Choice: SisterSong and Reproductive Justice for Black Women

• In Event: Black Feminism in the New Millennium: From Black Feminist Methodologies to Social Justice Activism

Abstract

The reproductive rights conversation in the U.S. is primarily framed as one about the individual right to obtain contraception and/or to have an abortion. For Black women, however, who face a myriad of issues, including state surveillance of their communities, unequal access to resources, and the denial of the right to control their reproductive bodies, the issue of reproductive rights is much more complex. Black women also often face sexist, racialized pressure to not have abortions, even from within their own communities. Consequently, many Black women have embraced the Reproductive Justice framework, which focuses not only on ensuring reproductive freedom for Black women, indigenous women, and other women of color, but also on ensuring the human right of these women to have children and to raise their families in a safe, healthy environment. The Reproductive Justice framework is multilayered in that it examines the ways in which multiple systems of oppression (i.e. race, class, and gender) work together against women of color. It also illuminates the ways in which social institutions, such as health care, the educational system, and the state, perpetuate Black women’s oppression, and the ways in which they contest these institutions. In addition, the Reproductive Justice movement maintains a collective, social justice focus in its efforts to organize on behalf of women of color and indigenous women in the U.S. In this paper, I analyze the newsletter, “Collective Voices,” issued by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. This newsletter features articles on a range of topics, such as the intersections between environmental justice and reproductive justice and immigrant rights and reproductive justice. Drawing on Black Feminist and Reproductive Justice scholarship, I examine the ways in which SisterSong merges the frameworks of intersectionality and Reproductive Justice to illustrate that for women of color and indigenous women, the issue of reproductive rights is much more complex than simple individual choice. To be fully inclusive, reproductive rights activists must consider the ways in which multiple forms of oppression shape the lives of women of color and how this influences their reproductive health and choices.

Author

• Jennifer Turner, Virginia Tech