Intersecting Social Justice Movements: Collaborating to Achieve Reproductive Justice

There exists a dichotomy in both policy and advocacy between those who focus on issue of whole women’s health and those in the anti-choice movement who emphasize fetal rights.  Throughout the past decade, efforts to restrict abortion, with subsequent impacts on women’s health, have increased across the nation. Examples include fetal personhood initiatives, abortion provider restrictions (TRAP laws), and bans on procedures (method bans).

While the anti-choice movement has focused on prioritizing the fetus over the mother, women’s health advocates have been shifting the narrative to focus on comprehensive women’s health and the issues that intersect so intimately to allow a woman to fully achieve reproductive freedom. I will discuss how messaging has shifted to emphasize personal decision making, and therefore placing the focus on whole women’s health.  Placing a woman, and not a fetus, at the center of the discussion, the dialog goes beyond traditional reproductive rights issues of abortion access and contraceptive access.  These discussions broaden the scope to include pay equity, employment non-discrimination, family-friendly workplace policies, gender bias, and prevention of violence and harassment.  Drawing from experience working as a reproductive rights advocate for over eight years, this presentation will explore the change in messaging and the increasing intersections with other social justice movements.  With the shift to more widespread support for integrating reproductive rights with other social justice movements after years of somewhat tumultuous relations, I will suggest how to utilize our country’s history to address divisions in the movement and take our work forward.