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The Movement for Reproductive Justice

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View the page of Patricia Zavella

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Patricia Zavella discusses how reproductive justice organizations’ collaborative work across racial lines provides a compelling model for other groups to successfully influence change

Image courtesy of interviewee. September 12, 2024

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The speaker reflects on their journey from studying immigration and gender roles to focusing on the reproductive justice movement, which emphasizes the distinct rights and needs of women, particularly women of color. Upon discovering the significant gaps in scholarship regarding reproductive justice, they engaged in extensive ethnographic research involving various organizations advocating for reproductive rights.

The movement is characterized by four core tenets: the right to bear children, the right to terminate pregnancies, the right to healthy environments for raising children, and the right to bodily autonomy, including gender identity choices. It stands out for its proactive, structural approach to reproductive rights and its focus on the experiences of marginalized groups.

The research highlights the movement's commitment to community empowerment, youth involvement, and the integration of spirituality in activism. The speaker notes the challenges faced after the Dobbs decision, which has disproportionately impacted women of color, prompting the movement to adapt its strategies to address misinformation and enhance visibility of their efforts.

The speaker emphasizes the urgent need for solidarity, recognizing the historical context of reproductive justice, and the vital role of storytelling in advocacy. They aim for their work to be accessible for educational purposes, contributing to a broader understanding of the movement’s significance and encouraging diverse participation in reproductive justice efforts.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Focus on Reproductive Justice**: The movement for reproductive justice emphasizes the proactive inclusion of various social groups, particularly women of color, in discussions about reproductive rights. It seeks to address the structural, cultural, and holistic needs related to reproductive health and autonomy.

2. **Four Basic Tenets**: The reproductive justice movement is founded on four main principles: the right to bear children, the right to terminate pregnancies without obstacles, the right to healthy environments for childbearing, and the right to bodily autonomy, including choosing one’s gender identity.

3. **Historical Convideo and Leadership**: The term “reproductive justice” was coined by African American activists in the 1990s and has been largely led by women of color focusing on the specific reproductive rights and needs of marginalized communities, highlighting the unique challenges they face.

4. **Intersectional Approach**: The movement applies an intersectional framework, considering how issues of race, gender, class, and other identities intersect. This perspective aims to uplift the most marginalized within the reproductive justice discourse, ensuring that strategies are inclusive and address the diverse needs of the community.

5. **Long-term Commitment to Change**: The movement advocates for a long-term approach to social change, engaging communities in education and awareness about reproductive health issues and the social inequalities affecting women of color. This includes not just immediate action but fostering grassroots engagement and leadership within the communities impacted.

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Here are some key quotes from the video:

1. **Background and Research Journey:**
- "My previous work had been on immigration and changing gender roles and how, uh, low-income migrants struggled to adapt to all the changes that happen culturally."
- "As I got to know the movement, I was struck by how little I knew about them, and presumably many other academics and people teaching academic classes."

2. **Movement for Reproductive Justice:**
- "Activists and the movement for reproductive justice are very careful to distinguish themselves from those who work on behalf of reproductive rights."
- "They believe that women have the human right to bear children, which means they have a critique of all of the ways in which women of color's, uh, fertility has been curtailed."

3. **Principles of Reproductive Justice:**
- "They also believe women have the human right to terminate their pregnancies without obstacles or judgment."
- "They believe women have the human right to bear their children in healthy environments."

4. **Historical Convideo:**
- "The phrase, uh, reproductive justice was coined by African American activists back in the 1990s."
- "So it's a fairly unique social movement, and a lot of people see the phrase reproductive justice, and they feel like, well, of course I'm for that."

5. **Research Methods and Themes:**
- "Every ethnographer collects tons of field notes and interview transcripts. And I also looked at social media."
- "This movement very much then is a long-term approach to social change."

6. **Challenges Faced by Women of Color:**
- "Reproductive justice activists emphasize that Dobbs has been devastating. Um, and particularly women of color and Latinas in particular are the highest group of women who are subject to the changes."

7. **Addressing Misinformation:**
- "There's a lot of misinformation in communities of color around abortion."
- "If you look at polls and surveys and ethnographic research, women of color support the right to bodily autonomy at higher percentages than the rest of Americans."

8. **Looking Forward:**
- "The movement is seeking to become more proactive and really take leadership with other civil rights organizations in the United States that up to now have really not focused much on reproductive health."
- "I hope that people who read the book understand that reproductive justice has been happening for over 30 years and it's just not visible."

These quotes capture the speaker's journey into understanding and advocating for the reproductive justice movement, highlighting its uniqueness, challenges faced, and the significance of long-term commitment to social change.

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Here are some articles that are similar in theme and content to the video, focusing on topics such as reproductive justice, gender roles, and the activism surrounding marginalized communities:

1. **"Reproductive Justice: A Global Perspective"**
This article explores the concept of reproductive justice on an international scale, discussing how various cultures address women’s rights, bodily autonomy, and reproductive health, particularly highlighting the experiences of women of color.

2. **"The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Reproductive Rights"**
This piece delves into how race and gender intersect to influence women's access to reproductive health services in the United States while also discussing the historical convideo behind these disparities.

3. **"Community-Based Approaches to Reproductive Health"**
An investigation into how grassroots organizations engage in reproductive health advocacy, emphasizing the importance of community empowerment and local solutions to enhance access and education surrounding reproductive rights.

4. **"The Role of Ethnography in Understanding Reproductive Justice Movements"**
This article focuses on how ethnographic methods can shed light on the experiences of individuals and organizations involved in the reproductive justice movement, highlighting personal narratives and collective challenges.

5. **"After Dobbs: The Future of Reproductive Justice in America"**
A discourse on the implications of recent court rulings on reproductive rights and the necessary shifts within the reproductive justice movement, particularly how activists are responding to new challenges.

6. **"Storytelling as a Tool for Advocacy in Reproductive Justice"**
This article emphasizes the importance of narrative and personal stories in raising awareness and fostering community support for reproductive rights, showcasing how storytelling can humanize issues and mobilize action.

7. **"Youth Activism in the Reproductive Justice Movement"**
A look at the roles young activists play in pushing for reproductive justice, discussing how youth perspectives and engagement can drive change and reinvigorate movements.

8. **"Spirituality and Activism: A Reproductive Justice Perspective"**
This piece examines the role of spirituality in social justice movements, particularly how faith and belief systems can empower individuals in their advocacy for reproductive rights.

9. **"The Critical Need for Inclusive Reproductive Health Policies"**
An exploration of policies that address reproductive health needs across different demographics, focusing on the importance of inclusivity for women of color and marginalized communities.

10. **"Misinformation and Its Impact on Reproductive Rights"**
This article discusses the rise of misinformation surrounding reproductive health and how organizations are strategizing to combat false narratives in order to protect and empower reproductive rights.

These articles should provide a comprehensive understanding of the various facets of reproductive justice, activism, and the intersectionality of gender and race within these movements.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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My previous work had been on immigration

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and changing gender roles

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and how, low-income migrants struggled to adapt

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to all the changes that happen culturally

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and politically and economically.

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And it was a very sad story.

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And in the middle of finishing up a book on these processes,

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I received an email about the movement

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for reproductive justice.

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And I was very struck by how proactive they were, how

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unabashedly pro-immigrant they were, how they included women

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and men and young people.

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And so I was intrigued,

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and as I got to know the movement,

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I literally googled reproductive justice

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and then did a bunch of research

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and found out there wasn't a lot of scholarship.

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And as I got to know the movement, I was struck by

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how little I knew about them,

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and presumably many other academics

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and people teaching academic classes.

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And so I decided I really wanted

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to focus in on this movement and try to understand it.

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That took me on a long, complicated journey

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of conducting ethnographic research

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with three 13 organizations,

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but also to the scholarship on social movements,

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which has at the time had very little to say about women

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of color and virtually nothing about, organizing

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for reproductive rights.

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So this seemed like a u unique movement

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and an important gap to fill.

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Activists and the movement

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for reproductive justice are very careful

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to distinguish themselves from those who work on behalf

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of reproductive rights

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and those who provide reproductive health services

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like Planned Parenthood.

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And it's a social movement that has four basic tenets.

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They believe that women have the human right

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to bear children, which means they have a critique of all

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of the ways in which women of color's,

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fertility has been curtailed,

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and the way in which they have been subject

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to experimentation.

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Uh, when it comes to contraception.

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They also believe women have the human right

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to terminate their pregnancies

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without obstacles or judgment.

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And as you know, these days,

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that human right has really called into question in the

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United States, they believe women have the human right

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to bear their children in healthy environments.

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So that very much makes them allied

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with environmental justice and racial justice

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and gender justice, social movements.

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And then they believe the, that women have the right

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to bodily autonomy, including,

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choosing their gender identity.

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And so these basic principles then sort

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of have them stand out from other

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movements working on reproductive rights.

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And it's a movement that was, the phrase,

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reproductive justice was coined

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by African American activists back in the 1990s.

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And it very much has been led by women

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of color on behalf of women of color.

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So it's a fairly unique social movement,

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and a lot of people see the phrase reproductive justice,

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and they feel like, well, of course I'm for that,

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particularly these days.

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But the movement is always trying to clarify that.

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We have an over 30 year history,

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and we have approached reproductive rights from a very

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structural, cultural and holistic, framework.

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Every ethnographer collects tons of field notes

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and interview transcripts.

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And I also looked at social media.

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So I had all of these, printouts

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of people's social media and the,

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and the communications that they circulate.

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So I had a, a wealth of material. I'd also did focus groups.

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And so I began by,

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coding this material using an ethnographic software program.

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And that helped me to pull up the themes

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and the concepts that was in the material,

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and to begin to organize it.

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And in the end, I wrote focusing on the issues of

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what they call culture shift work,

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where they're very much taking on stereotypes

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and negative representations about women of color

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and countering them explicitly,

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but also using the discourse of empowerment and the strength

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and resiliency of communities of color.

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Another chapter focused on sort

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of my central theoretical question, like,

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how do you negotiate

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and work together in a social movement

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that both uses the phrase women of color,

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which is a very much term of solidarity,

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but also many of these organizations are racially specific.

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So black women for wellness, California, Latinas

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for reproductive justice, et cetera, et cetera.

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So how do you negotiate the inevitable tensions

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around these racial emphasis

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and the broad term of women of color?

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And so that, that, second chapter sort of really focuses

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on two campaigns

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and talks about sort of the nitty gritty,

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what are the skills that this movement has honed

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to enable them to collaborate together?

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Um, a third chapter focused on youth mobilization.

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Many of these organizations have youth empowerment projects,

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and I really wanted to know, well, what does

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that look like, you know, in real terms?

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And some of them are working with youth as young as 13

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and talking about sensitive issue like

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contraception and abortion.

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Um, and so I focus in on four organizations

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and the way in which they work with youth of color

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and what empowerment means.

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And one of the things I realized is

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that this is not a neoliberal approach

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where it's all about an individual learning about her human

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right to choose.

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It's much more a structural approach

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and which youth are trained in the structural causes

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of inequalities and the barriers to healthcare

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and the discourses that put down black women,

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or Latina women or Asian women for,

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their bodily autonomy.

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And it very much encourages a collective form

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of social change so

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that young people feel like they individually have the human

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right, but they also wanna work on

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behalf of their communities.

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And then the final chapter was sort

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of unexpected in the sense that I didn't set out

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to talk about spirituality,

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but I discovered in the course of my research that many

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of these organizations really honor the,

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spiritual heritage of communities of color.

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And that is separate from

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organized religion from the Baptist church,

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the Black Baptist Church, for example, or Catholicism

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or, Buddhism.

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And it, they ver the movement very much tries

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to take the notion of bodily autonomy seriously.

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And so they encourage women, as they say,

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to bring their full so selves, which means your, all

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of your identities, what your body needs

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and what makes you healthy, but also your spiritual beliefs

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and how that shapes your social activism.

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So that chapter focuses in on four organizations

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and how they work with, spirituality.

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And it was a real revelation for me.

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I was raised Catholic, so I had a very limited view of

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what spirituality looks like, until I, got involved

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with the social movement.

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And I should emphasize that in addition to human rights,

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reproductive justice very much frames itself

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as using intersectionality.

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And so by that they mean sort of the co-construction

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of power related to race and gender

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and class, sexual sexuality, legal status, et cetera.

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But also using that approach,

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focusing in on the most marginalized, the poorest women,

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undocumented women, trans women, young women.

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And so it's an approach that is always

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encouraging the community to pay attention to the vulnerable

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and to move forward with the politics of solidarity.

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While the challenges are that, to do this kind

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of mindful work, really a consciousness raising process

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that takes individual women through learning

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that their individual troubles are not, there's a loan,

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but a collective problem and rooted in social inequalities.

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It's really a long-term process of education

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and training, providing workshops

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and working with women as they work through

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what is really a, a profound transformation.

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So this movement very much then is a long-term

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approach to social change.

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It's not let's get out a survey

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and find out what we need to do.

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It's not let's organize mass demonstrations,

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although they definitely do that as well.

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But it's, let's do long-term work with low-income, women

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of color, understanding not only their structural

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impediments, but culturally how they approach

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reproductive health issues.

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And let's build a cadre of really sort

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of like-minded folks who are there for the long term.

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And I think the, where I saw that most clearly,

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I did a lot of work in South Texas

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where women live in colonials, are largely undocumented,

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very, very poor, lots of health issues.

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And these women have been involved for years

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in the social movement.

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And, the movement has really sort

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of defined different levels of participation.

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So you begin sort of as a novice, and then you move up

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and you get involved, and then you become a trainer

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and a leader, leader.

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And I think it has a very compelling process

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that women feel like they're engaged, they're involved

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for the long term, like they are gonna be involved the rest

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of their lives, which is so interesting to see.

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Reproductive justice activists emphasize that

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Dobbs has been devastating.

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Um, and particularly women of color

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and Latinas in particular are the highest group of women

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who are subject to the changes.

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They're, they live in states in which,

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restrictions on abortion have occurred.

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And so it's affecting women of color the most.

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And the movement sort of has developed a set of, of pivots,

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if you will, of new strategies.

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And one of them is we really need to pay attention

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to those most effective.

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And if you look at all of the shock and critique

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and analysis that happened, particularly at the beginning,

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after the Dobbs decision,

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virtually no one was talking about

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how this was affecting women of color.

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Um, and so it was, you know, like it was a shock to those

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of us involved in the movement.

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Uh, so they really wanna call attention to, the,

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those who are most affected.

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They also really want to counter the stereotypes

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that circulate out there, that assume that women

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of color don't support, access to abortion.

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And in fact, if you look at, polls and surveys

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and ethnographic research, women of color support the right

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to bodily autonomy at higher percentages than the

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rest of Americans.

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And so that, we don't know where that stereotype came from,

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but it's very pervasive,

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even in the reproductive justice movement.

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And so there's been a lot of work in informing people that

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yes, Latina support access to abortion.

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And it's a complicated stance of,

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I may not get an abortion myself,

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but I understand that this is a legal right,

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or what they call a human right.

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And so of course that needs to be accessible to all women.

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So, you know, that's sort of the second strategy.

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I think the third strategy is really paying attention

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to the way in which there's a lot

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of misinformation in communities of color around abortion.

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And so setting up hotlines, helping women understand

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how you can do searches to access abortion services in

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Spanish, producing, flyers about information

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to access medication, abortion in particular,

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and where you can go

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and what are the resources

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that will help women travel if they have to travel.

12:05.145 --> 12:10.085
And really sort of, taking on that we have this sense

12:10.085 --> 12:13.615
of crisis in our country that what are we gonna do

12:13.675 --> 12:15.135
to access abortion services?

12:15.195 --> 12:17.295
And they're really sort of trying to help women of color.

12:18.555 --> 12:22.945
Um, and then I think this movement is very much paying

12:22.945 --> 12:26.345
attention to the way in which, the struggle

12:26.345 --> 12:28.625
for reproductive rights is happening in Latin America

12:28.625 --> 12:30.945
around the world, but in Latin America in particular,

12:31.445 --> 12:32.865
in a very pronounced way.

12:33.725 --> 12:36.665
And so there's been some early work to sort of collaborate

12:37.095 --> 12:39.945
with those involved in the green wave marre

12:40.295 --> 12:41.785
vere in Latin America.

12:41.785 --> 12:44.345
There's been key convenings in Mexico City

12:44.365 --> 12:48.305
and in Washington DC in which activists from across the

12:48.305 --> 12:50.665
Americas are sort of talking about, well,

12:50.665 --> 12:52.345
how did you do it in Argentina?

12:52.345 --> 12:54.745
Well, how are you moving things in Mexico?

12:55.685 --> 12:58.425
And sort of confirming their solidarity

12:58.685 --> 13:00.225
and their desire to work together.

13:00.765 --> 13:03.425
And that solidarity work also includes

13:04.065 --> 13:06.145
reproductive justice organizations in the United States,

13:06.205 --> 13:09.425
taking the lead on, setting up,

13:10.425 --> 13:14.185
I believe they're called C four, units, where, most

13:14.185 --> 13:15.865
of these organizations are nonprofits.

13:15.865 --> 13:18.545
So they can't be involved directly in politics.

13:18.545 --> 13:19.665
They're supposed to be nonpartisan.

13:20.325 --> 13:24.505
But when you set up a C four unit, then that allows you

13:24.505 --> 13:27.385
to fundraise and to get involved in,

13:27.425 --> 13:29.185
lobbying in a partisan way.

13:29.645 --> 13:31.505
And so there's an, a collaboration

13:31.525 --> 13:33.665
and initiative to set that up

13:33.665 --> 13:35.345
that includes multiple organizations

13:35.805 --> 13:38.105
and they're gonna get involved in voter registration

13:38.285 --> 13:41.665
and voter education in a way that they haven't done before.

13:41.665 --> 13:43.785
And they're also, hoping

13:43.845 --> 13:47.985
to establish some very large scale mass demonstrations,

13:48.095 --> 13:50.345
much likely did in countries in Latin America.

13:50.845 --> 13:54.225
So the movement is seeking to become more proactive

13:55.235 --> 13:56.655
and really take leadership

13:56.685 --> 13:59.095
with other civil rights organizations in the United States

13:59.645 --> 14:02.535
that up to now have really not focused much

14:02.535 --> 14:03.615
on reproductive health.

14:03.935 --> 14:06.175
I try to write it accessibly

14:06.415 --> 14:08.135
'cause I really wanted to be,

14:08.135 --> 14:09.575
taught in undergraduate classes.

14:10.515 --> 14:13.855
Um, and so I hope that they understand

14:14.205 --> 14:18.055
that reproductive justice is a very welcoming all-inclusive

14:18.165 --> 14:21.575
framework, and that anyone can consider herself

14:21.675 --> 14:24.775
or himself a reproductive justice advocate.

14:25.315 --> 14:28.335
And that can mean many things as simple as donating money

14:28.435 --> 14:31.495
to really getting out there and doing some activist work.

14:32.635 --> 14:36.255
And I hope that people who read the book understand

14:36.725 --> 14:38.935
that reproductive justice has been happening

14:38.995 --> 14:41.695
for over 30 years and it's just not visible.

14:42.515 --> 14:45.695
Um, and I, you know, that has a lot to do with that.

14:45.695 --> 14:50.175
It's led by women of color. It's very pro L-G-B-T-Q.

14:50.475 --> 14:52.845
Uh, a lot of the directors are lesbians.

14:53.025 --> 14:57.885
And so there's a lot of emphasis on trans women,

14:58.025 --> 15:00.365
for example, and there's, particular needs.

15:01.025 --> 15:02.765
Um, and so I think that's part

15:02.765 --> 15:04.285
of why they don't get much attention.

15:04.985 --> 15:08.245
Um, and but also, you know, they're small organizations

15:08.545 --> 15:10.245
and compared to the large

15:11.165 --> 15:13.445
reproductive rights organizations like Planned Parenthood,

15:13.445 --> 15:16.605
like the Center for Reproductive Rights, they get lots

15:16.605 --> 15:18.325
of funding and, the gut marker

15:18.825 --> 15:20.925
and they get lots of media attention.

15:21.025 --> 15:24.405
So it's actually unusual for reproductive justice activists

15:24.405 --> 15:26.205
to go on national television, for example.

15:27.145 --> 15:31.885
Um, and I'm hoping that readers will see this long, rich

15:32.555 --> 15:34.365
history and,

15:34.415 --> 15:37.285
understand the ways in which they can help promote the work

15:37.285 --> 15:39.285
that they're doing, and they can be in solidarity.

15:39.825 --> 15:43.645
And then for scholars, I hope that they see that there.

15:43.925 --> 15:48.685
I I try to do a different kind of multi-sided ethnography,

15:49.225 --> 15:52.045
which is a little debate among anthropologists.

15:52.225 --> 15:54.365
And it's not about looking at globalism

15:54.465 --> 15:57.045
or, you know, big massive structural changes

15:57.195 --> 15:58.365
that affects everybody,

15:58.385 --> 15:59.885
but it's more at looking at

16:00.105 --> 16:02.805
how do you have different organizations in lots of places

16:02.805 --> 16:04.805
around the country who were in

16:05.125 --> 16:06.165
communication with one another?

16:06.385 --> 16:08.125
And as crises come up,

16:08.125 --> 16:11.085
or as campaigns get formulated, they figure out a way

16:11.145 --> 16:13.325
to work very closely

16:13.865 --> 16:16.925
and collaboratively, literally sending money

16:17.225 --> 16:20.525
or sending organizers or coming to press conferences.

16:21.145 --> 16:23.285
Um, so it's a different kind of work I think

16:23.285 --> 16:25.205
that we don't hear much about.

16:26.145 --> 16:29.575
And then finally, theoretically,

16:30.165 --> 16:33.175
there's been a long scholarship on intersectionality,

16:33.475 --> 16:38.055
and most of it, has been a critique of the limitations

16:38.055 --> 16:39.535
of it as a theoretical framework.

16:39.835 --> 16:43.615
And I'm trying to suggest that despite those limitations,

16:43.845 --> 16:45.655
there's a lot that's very compelling

16:45.915 --> 16:49.015
and women of color in this movement have really,

16:49.085 --> 16:52.055
figured out what Kim Kimberly Crenshaw calls

16:52.055 --> 16:53.135
ready to work skills.

16:53.685 --> 16:56.535
Like they know how to collaborate, they know how to work

16:56.565 --> 16:58.215
with different racial groups

16:58.565 --> 17:00.615
with different histories in different states

17:01.005 --> 17:03.295
that really matters, in our country.

17:04.115 --> 17:07.695
And they've learned how to communicate with one another.

17:07.795 --> 17:10.175
And storytelling is really a methodology

17:10.765 --> 17:13.375
that this movement uses quite successfully.

17:13.475 --> 17:14.695
And it's very compelling

17:14.995 --> 17:16.695
to get people involved in the movement,

17:16.755 --> 17:20.255
but also to have, some support be generated

17:20.275 --> 17:22.455
by hearing the stories that people,

17:22.525 --> 17:24.375
tell about their experiences trying

17:24.375 --> 17:25.775
to access reproductive healthcare.

17:26.355 --> 17:29.575
Um, so I'm hoping that there are multiple kinds of things

17:29.575 --> 17:31.135
that readers will get out of this book.

17:31.415 --> 17:34.455
I would add that, you know, as I was doing my research

17:34.455 --> 17:36.735
and figuring out there are over 30 reproductive justice

17:36.735 --> 17:40.415
organizations in the country, I feel like there's

17:40.435 --> 17:43.895
so much work to be done on the histories of each one.

17:43.895 --> 17:45.015
That wasn't my project.

17:45.675 --> 17:46.855
Uh, I have, I know a couple

17:46.855 --> 17:48.095
of people who are doing that work.

17:48.835 --> 17:51.445
And, there's just a, you know, when you look at the,

17:51.745 --> 17:56.725
the history of women's health movement, beautiful work,

17:56.755 --> 18:00.205
very, very important, but not much in women of color.

18:00.345 --> 18:02.885
So I think there's a lot of dissertations waiting

18:02.885 --> 18:03.365
to be done.

00:00 - My previous work had been on immigration and changing gender roles and how, low-income migrants struggled to adapt to all the changes that happen culturally and politically and economically. And it was a very sad story.

00:16 - And in the middle of finishing up a book on these processes, I received an email about the movement for reproductive justice. And I was very struck by how proactive they were, how unabashedly pro-immigrant they were, how they included women and men and young people. And so I was intrigued, and as I got to know the movement, I literally googled reproductive justice and then did a bunch of research

00:42 - and found out there wasn't a lot of scholarship. And as I got to know the movement, I was struck by how little I knew about them, and presumably many other academics and people teaching academic classes. And so I decided I really wanted to focus in on this movement and try to understand it. That took me on a long, complicated journey of conducting ethnographic research with three 13 organizations,

01:10 - but also to the scholarship on social movements, which has at the time had very little to say about women of color and virtually nothing about, organizing for reproductive rights. So this seemed like a u unique movement and an important gap to fill. Activists and the movement for reproductive justice are very careful to distinguish themselves from those who work on behalf of reproductive rights

01:36 - and those who provide reproductive health services like Planned Parenthood. And it's a social movement that has four basic tenets. They believe that women have the human right to bear children, which means they have a critique of all of the ways in which women of color's, fertility has been curtailed, and the way in which they have been subject to experimentation. when it comes to contraception.

02:01 - They also believe women have the human right to terminate their pregnancies without obstacles or judgment. And as you know, these days, that human right has really called into question in the United States, they believe women have the human right to bear their children in healthy environments. So that very much makes them allied with environmental justice and racial justice and gender justice, social movements.

02:28 - And then they believe the, that women have the right to bodily autonomy, including, choosing their gender identity. And so these basic principles then sort of have them stand out from other movements working on reproductive rights. And it's a movement that was, the phrase, reproductive justice was coined by African American activists back in the 1990s. And it very much has been led by women

02:55 - of color on behalf of women of color. So it's a fairly unique social movement, and a lot of people see the phrase reproductive justice, and they feel like, well, of course I'm for that, particularly these days. But the movement is always trying to clarify that. We have an over 30 year history, and we have approached reproductive rights from a very structural, cultural and holistic, framework. Every ethnographer collects tons of field notes

03:26 - and interview transcripts. And I also looked at social media. So I had all of these, printouts of people's social media and the, and the communications that they circulate. So I had a, a wealth of material. I'd also did focus groups. And so I began by, coding this material using an ethnographic software program. And that helped me to pull up the themes and the concepts that was in the material,

03:51 - and to begin to organize it. And in the end, I wrote focusing on the issues of what they call culture shift work, where they're very much taking on stereotypes and negative representations about women of color and countering them explicitly, but also using the discourse of empowerment and the strength and resiliency of communities of color. Another chapter focused on sort of my central theoretical question, like,

04:20 - how do you negotiate and work together in a social movement that both uses the phrase women of color, which is a very much term of solidarity, but also many of these organizations are racially specific. So black women for wellness, California, Latinas for reproductive justice, et cetera, et cetera. So how do you negotiate the inevitable tensions around these racial emphasis and the broad term of women of color?

04:47 - And so that, that, second chapter sort of really focuses on two campaigns and talks about sort of the nitty gritty, what are the skills that this movement has honed to enable them to collaborate together? a third chapter focused on youth mobilization. Many of these organizations have youth empowerment projects, and I really wanted to know, well, what does that look like, you know, in real terms? And some of them are working with youth as young as 13

05:16 - and talking about sensitive issue like contraception and abortion. and so I focus in on four organizations and the way in which they work with youth of color and what empowerment means. And one of the things I realized is that this is not a neoliberal approach where it's all about an individual learning about her human right to choose. It's much more a structural approach

05:42 - and which youth are trained in the structural causes of inequalities and the barriers to healthcare and the discourses that put down black women, or Latina women or Asian women for, their bodily autonomy. And it very much encourages a collective form of social change so that young people feel like they individually have the human right, but they also wanna work on behalf of their communities.

06:10 - And then the final chapter was sort of unexpected in the sense that I didn't set out to talk about spirituality, but I discovered in the course of my research that many of these organizations really honor the, spiritual heritage of communities of color. And that is separate from organized religion from the Baptist church, the Black Baptist Church, for example, or Catholicism or, Buddhism.

06:39 - And it, they ver the movement very much tries to take the notion of bodily autonomy seriously. And so they encourage women, as they say, to bring their full so selves, which means your, all of your identities, what your body needs and what makes you healthy, but also your spiritual beliefs and how that shapes your social activism. So that chapter focuses in on four organizations and how they work with, spirituality. And it was a real revelation for me.

07:08 - I was raised Catholic, so I had a very limited view of what spirituality looks like, until I, got involved with the social movement. And I should emphasize that in addition to human rights, reproductive justice very much frames itself as using intersectionality. And so by that they mean sort of the co-construction of power related to race and gender and class, sexual sexuality, legal status, et cetera. But also using that approach,

07:39 - focusing in on the most marginalized, the poorest women, undocumented women, trans women, young women. And so it's an approach that is always encouraging the community to pay attention to the vulnerable and to move forward with the politics of solidarity. While the challenges are that, to do this kind of mindful work, really a consciousness raising process that takes individual women through learning that their individual troubles are not, there's a loan, but a collective problem and rooted in social inequalities.

08:16 - It's really a long-term process of education and training, providing workshops and working with women as they work through what is really a, a profound transformation. So this movement very much then is a long-term approach to social change. It's not let's get out a survey and find out what we need to do. It's not let's organize mass demonstrations, although they definitely do that as well.

08:43 - But it's, let's do long-term work with low-income, women of color, understanding not only their structural impediments, but culturally how they approach reproductive health issues. And let's build a cadre of really sort of like-minded folks who are there for the long term. And I think the, where I saw that most clearly, I did a lot of work in South Texas where women live in colonials, are largely undocumented, very, very poor, lots of health issues.

09:15 - And these women have been involved for years in the social movement. And, the movement has really sort of defined different levels of participation. So you begin sort of as a novice, and then you move up and you get involved, and then you become a trainer and a leader, leader. And I think it has a very compelling process that women feel like they're engaged, they're involved for the long term, like they are gonna be involved the rest

09:41 - of their lives, which is so interesting to see. Reproductive justice activists emphasize that Dobbs has been devastating. and particularly women of color and Latinas in particular are the highest group of women who are subject to the changes. They're, they live in states in which, restrictions on abortion have occurred. And so it's affecting women of color the most. And the movement sort of has developed a set of, of pivots,

10:11 - if you will, of new strategies. And one of them is we really need to pay attention to those most effective. And if you look at all of the shock and critique and analysis that happened, particularly at the beginning, after the Dobbs decision, virtually no one was talking about how this was affecting women of color. and so it was, you know, like it was a shock to those of us involved in the movement.

10:35 - so they really wanna call attention to, the, those who are most affected. They also really want to counter the stereotypes that circulate out there, that assume that women of color don't support, access to abortion. And in fact, if you look at, polls and surveys and ethnographic research, women of color support the right to bodily autonomy at higher percentages than the rest of Americans. And so that, we don't know where that stereotype came from,

11:06 - but it's very pervasive, even in the reproductive justice movement. And so there's been a lot of work in informing people that yes, Latina support access to abortion. And it's a complicated stance of, I may not get an abortion myself, but I understand that this is a legal right, or what they call a human right. And so of course that needs to be accessible to all women. So, you know, that's sort of the second strategy.

11:33 - I think the third strategy is really paying attention to the way in which there's a lot of misinformation in communities of color around abortion. And so setting up hotlines, helping women understand how you can do searches to access abortion services in Spanish, producing, flyers about information to access medication, abortion in particular, and where you can go and what are the resources that will help women travel if they have to travel.

12:05 - And really sort of, taking on that we have this sense of crisis in our country that what are we gonna do to access abortion services? And they're really sort of trying to help women of color. and then I think this movement is very much paying attention to the way in which, the struggle for reproductive rights is happening in Latin America around the world, but in Latin America in particular, in a very pronounced way. And so there's been some early work to sort of collaborate

12:37 - with those involved in the green wave marre vere in Latin America. There's been key convenings in Mexico City and in Washington DC in which activists from across the Americas are sort of talking about, well, how did you do it in Argentina? Well, how are you moving things in Mexico? And sort of confirming their solidarity and their desire to work together. And that solidarity work also includes

13:04 - reproductive justice organizations in the United States, taking the lead on, setting up, I believe they're called C four, units, where, most of these organizations are nonprofits. So they can't be involved directly in politics. They're supposed to be nonpartisan. But when you set up a C four unit, then that allows you to fundraise and to get involved in, lobbying in a partisan way. And so there's an, a collaboration

13:31 - and initiative to set that up that includes multiple organizations and they're gonna get involved in voter registration and voter education in a way that they haven't done before. And they're also, hoping to establish some very large scale mass demonstrations, much likely did in countries in Latin America. So the movement is seeking to become more proactive and really take leadership with other civil rights organizations in the United States

13:59 - that up to now have really not focused much on reproductive health. I try to write it accessibly 'cause I really wanted to be, taught in undergraduate classes. and so I hope that they understand that reproductive justice is a very welcoming all-inclusive framework, and that anyone can consider herself or himself a reproductive justice advocate. And that can mean many things as simple as donating money

14:28 - to really getting out there and doing some activist work. And I hope that people who read the book understand that reproductive justice has been happening for over 30 years and it's just not visible. and I, you know, that has a lot to do with that. It's led by women of color. It's very pro L-G-B-T-Q. a lot of the directors are lesbians. And so there's a lot of emphasis on trans women, for example, and there's, particular needs. and so I think that's part

15:02 - of why they don't get much attention. and but also, you know, they're small organizations and compared to the large reproductive rights organizations like Planned Parenthood, like the Center for Reproductive Rights, they get lots of funding and, the gut marker and they get lots of media attention. So it's actually unusual for reproductive justice activists to go on national television, for example. and I'm hoping that readers will see this long, rich

15:32 - history and, understand the ways in which they can help promote the work that they're doing, and they can be in solidarity. And then for scholars, I hope that they see that there. I I try to do a different kind of multi-sided ethnography, which is a little debate among anthropologists. And it's not about looking at globalism or, you know, big massive structural changes that affects everybody, but it's more at looking at

16:00 - how do you have different organizations in lots of places around the country who were in communication with one another? And as crises come up, or as campaigns get formulated, they figure out a way to work very closely and collaboratively, literally sending money or sending organizers or coming to press conferences. so it's a different kind of work I think that we don't hear much about.

16:26 - And then finally, theoretically, there's been a long scholarship on intersectionality, and most of it, has been a critique of the limitations of it as a theoretical framework. And I'm trying to suggest that despite those limitations, there's a lot that's very compelling and women of color in this movement have really, figured out what Kim Kimberly Crenshaw calls ready to work skills. Like they know how to collaborate, they know how to work

16:56 - with different racial groups with different histories in different states that really matters, in our country. And they've learned how to communicate with one another. And storytelling is really a methodology that this movement uses quite successfully. And it's very compelling to get people involved in the movement, but also to have, some support be generated by hearing the stories that people,

17:22 - tell about their experiences trying to access reproductive healthcare. so I'm hoping that there are multiple kinds of things that readers will get out of this book. I would add that, you know, as I was doing my research and figuring out there are over 30 reproductive justice organizations in the country, I feel like there's so much work to be done on the histories of each one. That wasn't my project. I have, I know a couple

17:46 - of people who are doing that work. And, there's just a, you know, when you look at the, the history of women's health movement, beautiful work, very, very important, but not much in women of color. So I think there's a lot of dissertations waiting to be done.

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