Loretta Ross is the National Coordinator of SisterSong, a national coalition of 80+ women of color and allied reproductive justice organizations headquartered in Atlanta. Ross researches and writes extensively on African American women and abortion and co-authored Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, a book on the history of the activism of women of color.
“Inclusivity” and “intersectionality” are not just words. They describe the theory and practice of the reproductive justice movement with the potential to revitalize all of our advocacy and enable us to create the large and motivated base of support required to secure reproductive rights, health, and justice for all.
The defeat of Mississippi Initiative 26 and the gains for reproductive choice today in Mississippi–while critical–may in the long run be seen as pyrrhic victories given the ominous implications of Initiative 27, the exclusionary voter ID initiative that will disenfranchise thousands of African Americans, immigrants, married women, transgendered people, and Native Americans.
In Mississippi, two ballot initiatives threaten the health and lives of women across the state, and the disenfranchisement of the largest bloc of voters in the state. A campaign based on a reproductive justice model can defeat both.
Women of color are fighting a race- and gender-baiting campaign that attempts to drive a racial wedge in the pro-choice movement and a gender wedge in communities of color.
President Obama flinches every time support for abortion comes up in policy debates — from the stimulus bill to healthcare reform. How can we be motivated to come out to the polls when we doubt whether our needs are his priority?
Reproductive justice is built on the foundation of human rights. The framework of “reproductive justice” requires that the most vulnerable populations be kept in the center of our lens, not at the margins.
If we are really entering a new phase of abortion politics, we have to stop selling out poor people to appease opponents of women’s human rights.
African American women who care about reproductive justice are not fooled into thinking that the Black anti-abortion movement cares about gender justice. If they had their way, we would be re-enslaved once again, based on our fertility.
