Reproductive Justice

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

This chapter is about the far-reaching struggle for reproductive justice through the lens of Black women in the US and immigrant women in Chile, linking local to global understanding of reproductive oppression. Reproductive justice (RJ) is defined as a theoretical paradigm that centers the experiences of marginalized Black women and other Women of Color (WOC) around issues related to their bodies, sexuality, and reproduction as a human right. It theorizes on three primary interconnected reproductive human rights: (i) the right to have a child under the conditions of one's choosing; (ii) the right not to have a child using birth control, abortion, or abstinence; and (iii) the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments free from violence by individuals or the state. No country in the world has committed to a vision that can guarantee the physical security of women. Living free from violence is a human right. A reproductive justice frame aids in understanding the complex system of interlocking forms of oppression in which women's reproductive relations are embedded. Having an understanding of the multiple systems of inequity (social construction of laws, policies, cultural attitudes, poverty, discriminatory practices, violent harms against women) that impact women helps to be able to deconstruct inequity in order to change it for women globally.

Comments

Chapter in Companion to Sexuality Studies.

ISBN: 9781119314998 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119315032 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119315056 (epub)

DOI

10.1002/9781119315049.ch25

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