Pro-Choice is Not Enough
Loretta J. Ross is the National Coordinator for the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, a network of women of color organizations and allied groups that work on reproductive justice issues. She was one of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center and is the co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice. Ivelisse Sanchez, Peacework intern, interviewed Loretta Ross on October 7, 2007.
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Throughout the years of the Bush Administration, those of us who care about women's access to safe, legal abortions have been faced with frustrating battles. As the group NARAL: Pro-Choice America writes: "From 1995 to 2006, when anti-choice lawmakers had control of Congress, they worked relentlessly to make abortion more difficult and dangerous." There has been some progress since the last election - for instance, Congress may soon act to repeal the "Global Gag Rule" which restricts foreign non-governmental organizations that receive US family planning funds from using their own, non-US funds to provide abortion services, lobby their own governments for abortion law reform, or even provide accurate medical counseling or referrals regarding abortion. But real change can only be accomplished if we grow towards a movement that focuses not only on abortion rights but on a whole range of women's health and justice issues.
Reproductive Justice
For many activists, especially women of color and poor women, a key development has been an expansion of the "reproductive rights" movement to a model of "reproductive justice." The concept of reproductive justice is to empower women to take control of our reproductive desti-nies, which includes the right to an abortion or birth control, the right to have a child, and the right to parent our children.
Women who fight for reproductive justice know the importance of organizing beyond the pro-choice framework. Poor women don't always relate to the pro-choice movement because they often have few real choices. Without the economic ability to afford an abortion, or without the support to parent the children they already have, a systematic cycle of reproductive oppression continues for all poor women, and especially for women of color.
Reproductive justice focuses on organizing women, girls, and their communities to challenge structural power inequalities in a comprehensive and transformative process. Instead of focusing on the means - a divisive debate on abortion and birth control that neglects many of the real-life experiences of women and girls - the reproductive justice analysis focuses on the ends: better lives for women, healthier families, and sustainable communities.
Working for All Women in 2008
In the upcoming election year, it is essential for people to refuse to support candidates who don't support women's rights and who become weak in the face of criticism from anti-abortion opponents. A politician who claims to work on behalf of poor women and women of color must strongly support our human rights and understand the dilemmas poor women face when making reproductive choices.
One immediate goal of the reproductive justice movement is to repeal the Hyde Amendment of 1976. The Hyde Amendment declares that no Medicaid funds - a federal program that provides payment to health care providers for poor and low-income people - can be used to pay for abortions, unless the procedure is necessary to save the mother's life, or the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest. As a result of this law, poor women are forced to spend their food or rent money to pay for an abortion. If they are unable to raise the funds, they are forced to have a child for which they are unable to provide. The National Network of Abortion Funds and other organizations are working collectively to end this legislation that has kept poor and low-income women from controlling their lives.
Women must organize to challenge and confront the oppressive policies affecting our communities. When a woman enters an abortion clinic she enters with all her problems, whether it is domes-tic abuse, economic hardship, or confusion about her options. Understanding how a woman's age, race, immigration status, sexual identify, and class directly affect her options is a key element in strengthening the pro-choice movement and transforming it into a Reproductive Justice movement.
SisterSong provides trainings on organizing and resources for women of color and young activists to join the fight for reproductive justice. If you would like more information about SisterSong or our trainings, please contact us: SisterSong, 1237 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. SW, Atlanta, GA 30310; 404/756-2680;www.sistersong.net.
"The concept of reproductive justice is to empower women to take control of our reproductive destinies, which includes the right to an abortion or birth control, the right to have a child, and the right to parent our children."
