ors’ observe: This text is from NPQ’s winter 2022 problem, “New Narratives for Well being.” On this dialog, Kitana Ananda, racial justice editor at NPQ, Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of Grantmaking at Groundswell, and Quanita Toffie, senior director of the Groundswell Motion Fund, talk about the historical past and present state of the reproductive justice motion in the US.
Click on right here to obtain this text because it seems within the journal, with accompanying paintings.
Kitana Ananda: I’d like to start out with speaking about Groundswell Fund’s work within the context of the broader reproductive justice motion. At Groundswell, you fund reproductive justice organizing led by folks of colour. For people who’re newer to this motion and language, are you able to communicate a little bit about what reproductive justice is, why it’s vital, and what makes reproductive justice organizing completely different from different kinds of organizing round abortion rights and entry or being “pro-choice”?
Naa Amissah-Hammond: Groundswell’s focus is on reproductive justice organizing, as you talked about, and on intersectional organizing by ladies of colour and trans folks of colour. And we use our grantee associate SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice—one of many founding organizations of the RJ [reproductive justice] motion—who outline RJ as a human proper. So, it’s grounded within the human rights framework—the best to bodily autonomy, to have a baby, to not have a baby, and to father or mother the youngsters that you’ve in protected and sustainable communities which might be free from state violence and likewise from injustice.
So what does that imply for us? We speak about reproductive justice as deeply intersectional. So, our grantees are Alaskan Native ladies organizing in opposition to toxics within the Arctic and the impacts that they may have on our well being and likewise the environment. They’re trans ladies of colour organizing in New York for housing justice, and who look to abolition and likewise, within the meantime, reforms to policing and prisons to assist trans communities. They’re Latinx ladies organizing on the border, and within the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, for abortion entry and immigrant justice. And we tie these points into the dialog round reproductive justice. And I believe the way in which that we speak about this work being completely different, and our grantees speak about it being completely different, is that it isn’t a slender focus. The professional-choice framework is a white feminist framework that singularly targeted on the important thing problem that was actually vital to white ladies specifically within the ’70s and ’80s: abortion rights. And that is tremendous vital for our communities, proper? It’s a problem that every one of our grantees work on. However it’s not the one problem our grantees work on.
We regularly increase up Audre Lorde’s phrases, “There’s no such factor as a single-issue battle as a result of we don’t dwell single-issue lives.”1 Our grantees are telling us again and again that we will’t have this dialog about abortion in Black communities if we’re not additionally speaking about maternal well being. We’ve to be speaking in regards to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. And we additionally must be organizing in that approach, as a result of that’s what brings the most individuals alongside in our struggle. So, I believe that’s how we see our grantees’ work as being completely different than only a slender focus, such because the pro-choice framework, that fairly often will solely be targeted on a authorized technique or typically advocacy technique, and doesn’t have a look at all the various completely different methods that teams are utilizing to vary hearts and minds and win reproductive freedom for the long term.
Quanita Toffie: To underscore what Naa already shared round reproductive justice being not nearly alternative, it’s additionally about entry—so, with the ability to afford to have an abortion, afford the associated fee related to touring tons of of miles to the closest clinic, and so forth—there isn’t any alternative when there isn’t any entry for our communities. The reproductive justice motion is rooted in racial justice. It’s centered and rooted within the racial justice framework. And that’s actually crucial, given the historical past of racism, classism, and sexism throughout the white feminist motion area—as is acknowledging that there have been additionally ladies of colour and trans and gender-expansive folks of colour affected by different issues, just like the historical past of compelled sterilization, and acknowledging that the struggle for reproductive justice is on a wider scale and spectrum than simply that alternative framework.
KA: Notably after the Dobbs choice, there was renewed media consideration on abortion rights, and there was some dialogue of reproductive justice extra broadly. However I believe there are nonetheless of us who usually are not conversant in the motion and the excellence between the 2 frameworks. What have you ever noticed about how persons are partaking with the motion after the Dobbs choice? Are you seeing new folks coming into the motion? Are you seeing completely different sorts of protection of the motion and the way that’s impacting theors’ observe: This text is from NPQ’s winter 2022 problem, “New Narratives for Well being.” On this dialog, Kitana Ananda, racial justice editor at NPQ, Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of Grantmaking at Groundswell, and Quanita Toffie, senior director of the Groundswell Motion Fund, talk about the historical past and present state of the reproductive justice motion in the US.
Click on right here to obtain this text because it seems within the journal, with accompanying paintings.
Kitana Ananda: I’d like to start out with speaking about Groundswell Fund’s work within the context of the broader reproductive justice motion. At Groundswell, you fund reproductive justice organizing led by folks of colour. For people who’re newer to this motion and language, are you able to communicate a little bit about what reproductive justice is, why it’s vital, and what makes reproductive justice organizing completely different from different kinds of organizing round abortion rights and entry or being “pro-choice”?
Naa Amissah-Hammond: Groundswell’s focus is on reproductive justice organizing, as you talked about, and on intersectional organizing by ladies of colour and trans folks of colour. And we use our grantee associate SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice—one of many founding organizations of the RJ [reproductive justice] motion—who outline RJ as a human proper. So, it’s grounded within the human rights framework—the best to bodily autonomy, to have a baby, to not have a baby, and to father or mother the youngsters that you’ve in protected and sustainable communities which might be free from state violence and likewise from injustice.
So what does that imply for us? We speak about reproductive justice as deeply intersectional. So, our grantees are Alaskan Native ladies organizing in opposition to toxics within the Arctic and the impacts that they may have on our well being and likewise the environment. They’re trans ladies of colour organizing in New York for housing justice, and who look to abolition and likewise, within the meantime, reforms to policing and prisons to assist trans communities. They’re Latinx ladies organizing on the border, and within the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, for abortion entry and immigrant justice. And we tie these points into the dialog round reproductive justice. And I believe the way in which that we speak about this work being completely different, and our grantees speak about it being completely different, is that it isn’t a slender focus. The professional-choice framework is a white feminist framework that singularly targeted on the important thing problem that was actually vital to white ladies specifically within the ’70s and ’80s: abortion rights. And that is tremendous vital for our communities, proper? It’s a problem that every one of our grantees work on. However it’s not the one problem our grantees work on.
We regularly increase up Audre Lorde’s phrases, “There’s no such factor as a single-issue battle as a result of we don’t dwell single-issue lives.”1 Our grantees are telling us again and again that we will’t have this dialog about abortion in Black communities if we’re not additionally speaking about maternal well being. We’ve to be speaking in regards to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. And we additionally must be organizing in that approach, as a result of that’s what brings the most individuals alongside in our struggle. So, I believe that’s how we see our grantees’ work as being completely different than only a slender focus, such because the pro-choice framework, that fairly often will solely be targeted on a authorized technique or typically advocacy technique, and doesn’t have a look at all the various completely different methods that teams are utilizing to vary hearts and minds and win reproductive freedom for the long term.
Quanita Toffie: To underscore what Naa already shared round reproductive justice being not nearly alternative, it’s additionally about entry—so, with the ability to afford to have an abortion, afford the associated fee related to touring tons of of miles to the closest clinic, and so forth—there isn’t any alternative when there isn’t any entry for our communities. The reproductive justice motion is rooted in racial justice. It’s centered and rooted within the racial justice framework. And that’s actually crucial, given the historical past of racism, classism, and sexism throughout the white feminist motion area—as is acknowledging that there have been additionally ladies of colour and trans and gender-expansive folks of colour affected by different issues, just like the historical past of compelled sterilization, and acknowledging that the struggle for reproductive justice is on a wider scale and spectrum than simply that alternative framework.
KA: Notably after the Dobbs choice, there was renewed media consideration on abortion rights, and there was some dialogue of reproductive justice extra broadly. However I believe there are nonetheless of us who usually are not conversant in the motion and the excellence between the 2 frameworks. What have you ever noticed about how persons are partaking with the motion after the Dobbs choice? Are you seeing new folks coming into the motion? Are you seeing completely different sorts of protection of the motion and the way that’s impacting theors’ observe: This text is from NPQ’s winter 2022 problem, “New Narratives for Well being.” On this dialog, Kitana Ananda, racial justice editor at NPQ, Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of Grantmaking at Groundswell, and Quanita Toffie, senior director of the Groundswell Motion Fund, talk about the historical past and present state of the reproductive justice motion in the US.
Click on right here to obtain this text because it seems within the journal, with accompanying paintings.
Kitana Ananda: I’d like to start out with speaking about Groundswell Fund’s work within the context of the broader reproductive justice motion. At Groundswell, you fund reproductive justice organizing led by folks of colour. For people who’re newer to this motion and language, are you able to communicate a little bit about what reproductive justice is, why it’s vital, and what makes reproductive justice organizing completely different from different kinds of organizing round abortion rights and entry or being “pro-choice”?
Naa Amissah-Hammond: Groundswell’s focus is on reproductive justice organizing, as you talked about, and on intersectional organizing by ladies of colour and trans folks of colour. And we use our grantee associate SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice—one of many founding organizations of the RJ [reproductive justice] motion—who outline RJ as a human proper. So, it’s grounded within the human rights framework—the best to bodily autonomy, to have a baby, to not have a baby, and to father or mother the youngsters that you’ve in protected and sustainable communities which might be free from state violence and likewise from injustice.
So what does that imply for us? We speak about reproductive justice as deeply intersectional. So, our grantees are Alaskan Native ladies organizing in opposition to toxics within the Arctic and the impacts that they may have on our well being and likewise the environment. They’re trans ladies of colour organizing in New York for housing justice, and who look to abolition and likewise, within the meantime, reforms to policing and prisons to assist trans communities. They’re Latinx ladies organizing on the border, and within the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, for abortion entry and immigrant justice. And we tie these points into the dialog round reproductive justice. And I believe the way in which that we speak about this work being completely different, and our grantees speak about it being completely different, is that it isn’t a slender focus. The professional-choice framework is a white feminist framework that singularly targeted on the important thing problem that was actually vital to white ladies specifically within the ’70s and ’80s: abortion rights. And that is tremendous vital for our communities, proper? It’s a problem that every one of our grantees work on. However it’s not the one problem our grantees work on.
We regularly increase up Audre Lorde’s phrases, “There’s no such factor as a single-issue battle as a result of we don’t dwell single-issue lives.”1 Our grantees are telling us again and again that we will’t have this dialog about abortion in Black communities if we’re not additionally speaking about maternal well being. We’ve to be speaking in regards to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. And we additionally must be organizing in that approach, as a result of that’s what brings the most individuals alongside in our struggle. So, I believe that’s how we see our grantees’ work as being completely different than only a slender focus, such because the pro-choice framework, that fairly often will solely be targeted on a authorized technique or typically advocacy technique, and doesn’t have a look at all the various completely different methods that teams are utilizing to vary hearts and minds and win reproductive freedom for the long term.
Quanita Toffie: To underscore what Naa already shared round reproductive justice being not nearly alternative, it’s additionally about entry—so, with the ability to afford to have an abortion, afford the associated fee related to touring tons of of miles to the closest clinic, and so forth—there isn’t any alternative when there isn’t any entry for our communities. The reproductive justice motion is rooted in racial justice. It’s centered and rooted within the racial justice framework. And that’s actually crucial, given the historical past of racism, classism, and sexism throughout the white feminist motion area—as is acknowledging that there have been additionally ladies of colour and trans and gender-expansive folks of colour affected by different issues, just like the historical past of compelled sterilization, and acknowledging that the struggle for reproductive justice is on a wider scale and spectrum than simply that alternative framework.
KA: Notably after the Dobbs choice, there was renewed media consideration on abortion rights, and there was some dialogue of reproductive justice extra broadly. However I believe there are nonetheless of us who usually are not conversant in the motion and the excellence between the 2 frameworks. What have you ever noticed about how persons are partaking with the motion after the Dobbs choice? Are you seeing new folks coming into the motion? Are you seeing completely different sorts of protection of the motion and the way that’s impacting theors’ observe: This text is from NPQ’s winter 2022 problem, “New Narratives for Well being.” On this dialog, Kitana Ananda, racial justice editor at NPQ, Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of Grantmaking at Groundswell, and Quanita Toffie, senior director of the Groundswell Motion Fund, talk about the historical past and present state of the reproductive justice motion in the US.
Click on right here to obtain this text because it seems within the journal, with accompanying paintings.
Kitana Ananda: I’d like to start out with speaking about Groundswell Fund’s work within the context of the broader reproductive justice motion. At Groundswell, you fund reproductive justice organizing led by folks of colour. For people who’re newer to this motion and language, are you able to communicate a little bit about what reproductive justice is, why it’s vital, and what makes reproductive justice organizing completely different from different kinds of organizing round abortion rights and entry or being “pro-choice”?
Naa Amissah-Hammond: Groundswell’s focus is on reproductive justice organizing, as you talked about, and on intersectional organizing by ladies of colour and trans folks of colour. And we use our grantee associate SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice—one of many founding organizations of the RJ [reproductive justice] motion—who outline RJ as a human proper. So, it’s grounded within the human rights framework—the best to bodily autonomy, to have a baby, to not have a baby, and to father or mother the youngsters that you’ve in protected and sustainable communities which might be free from state violence and likewise from injustice.
So what does that imply for us? We speak about reproductive justice as deeply intersectional. So, our grantees are Alaskan Native ladies organizing in opposition to toxics within the Arctic and the impacts that they may have on our well being and likewise the environment. They’re trans ladies of colour organizing in New York for housing justice, and who look to abolition and likewise, within the meantime, reforms to policing and prisons to assist trans communities. They’re Latinx ladies organizing on the border, and within the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, for abortion entry and immigrant justice. And we tie these points into the dialog round reproductive justice. And I believe the way in which that we speak about this work being completely different, and our grantees speak about it being completely different, is that it isn’t a slender focus. The professional-choice framework is a white feminist framework that singularly targeted on the important thing problem that was actually vital to white ladies specifically within the ’70s and ’80s: abortion rights. And that is tremendous vital for our communities, proper? It’s a problem that every one of our grantees work on. However it’s not the one problem our grantees work on.
We regularly increase up Audre Lorde’s phrases, “There’s no such factor as a single-issue battle as a result of we don’t dwell single-issue lives.”1 Our grantees are telling us again and again that we will’t have this dialog about abortion in Black communities if we’re not additionally speaking about maternal well being. We’ve to be speaking in regards to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. And we additionally must be organizing in that approach, as a result of that’s what brings the most individuals alongside in our struggle. So, I believe that’s how we see our grantees’ work as being completely different than only a slender focus, such because the pro-choice framework, that fairly often will solely be targeted on a authorized technique or typically advocacy technique, and doesn’t have a look at all the various completely different methods that teams are utilizing to vary hearts and minds and win reproductive freedom for the long term.
Quanita Toffie: To underscore what Naa already shared round reproductive justice being not nearly alternative, it’s additionally about entry—so, with the ability to afford to have an abortion, afford the associated fee related to touring tons of of miles to the closest clinic, and so forth—there isn’t any alternative when there isn’t any entry for our communities. The reproductive justice motion is rooted in racial justice. It’s centered and rooted within the racial justice framework. And that’s actually crucial, given the historical past of racism, classism, and sexism throughout the white feminist motion area—as is acknowledging that there have been additionally ladies of colour and trans and gender-expansive folks of colour affected by different issues, just like the historical past of compelled sterilization, and acknowledging that the struggle for reproductive justice is on a wider scale and spectrum than simply that alternative framework.
KA: Notably after the Dobbs choice, there was renewed media consideration on abortion rights, and there was some dialogue of reproductive justice extra broadly. However I believe there are nonetheless of us who usually are not conversant in the motion and the excellence between the 2 frameworks. What have you ever noticed about how persons are partaking with the motion after the Dobbs choice? Are you seeing new folks coming into the motion? Are you seeing completely different sorts of protection of the motion and the way that’s impacting theors’ observe: This text is from NPQ’s winter 2022 problem, “New Narratives for Well being.” On this dialog, Kitana Ananda, racial justice editor at NPQ, Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of Grantmaking at Groundswell, and Quanita Toffie, senior director of the Groundswell Motion Fund, talk about the historical past and present state of the reproductive justice motion in the US.
Click on right here to obtain this text because it seems within the journal, with accompanying paintings.
Kitana Ananda: I’d like to start out with speaking about Groundswell Fund’s work within the context of the broader reproductive justice motion. At Groundswell, you fund reproductive justice organizing led by folks of colour. For people who’re newer to this motion and language, are you able to communicate a little bit about what reproductive justice is, why it’s vital, and what makes reproductive justice organizing completely different from different kinds of organizing round abortion rights and entry or being “pro-choice”?
Naa Amissah-Hammond: Groundswell’s focus is on reproductive justice organizing, as you talked about, and on intersectional organizing by ladies of colour and trans folks of colour. And we use our grantee associate SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice—one of many founding organizations of the RJ [reproductive justice] motion—who outline RJ as a human proper. So, it’s grounded within the human rights framework—the best to bodily autonomy, to have a baby, to not have a baby, and to father or mother the youngsters that you’ve in protected and sustainable communities which might be free from state violence and likewise from injustice.
So what does that imply for us? We speak about reproductive justice as deeply intersectional. So, our grantees are Alaskan Native ladies organizing in opposition to toxics within the Arctic and the impacts that they may have on our well being and likewise the environment. They’re trans ladies of colour organizing in New York for housing justice, and who look to abolition and likewise, within the meantime, reforms to policing and prisons to assist trans communities. They’re Latinx ladies organizing on the border, and within the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, for abortion entry and immigrant justice. And we tie these points into the dialog round reproductive justice. And I believe the way in which that we speak about this work being completely different, and our grantees speak about it being completely different, is that it isn’t a slender focus. The professional-choice framework is a white feminist framework that singularly targeted on the important thing problem that was actually vital to white ladies specifically within the ’70s and ’80s: abortion rights. And that is tremendous vital for our communities, proper? It’s a problem that every one of our grantees work on. However it’s not the one problem our grantees work on.
We regularly increase up Audre Lorde’s phrases, “There’s no such factor as a single-issue battle as a result of we don’t dwell single-issue lives.”1 Our grantees are telling us again and again that we will’t have this dialog about abortion in Black communities if we’re not additionally speaking about maternal well being. We’ve to be speaking in regards to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. And we additionally must be organizing in that approach, as a result of that’s what brings the most individuals alongside in our struggle. So, I believe that’s how we see our grantees’ work as being completely different than only a slender focus, such because the pro-choice framework, that fairly often will solely be targeted on a authorized technique or typically advocacy technique, and doesn’t have a look at all the various completely different methods that teams are utilizing to vary hearts and minds and win reproductive freedom for the long term.
Quanita Toffie: To underscore what Naa already shared round reproductive justice being not nearly alternative, it’s additionally about entry—so, with the ability to afford to have an abortion, afford the associated fee related to touring tons of of miles to the closest clinic, and so forth—there isn’t any alternative when there isn’t any entry for our communities. The reproductive justice motion is rooted in racial justice. It’s centered and rooted within the racial justice framework. And that’s actually crucial, given the historical past of racism, classism, and sexism throughout the white feminist motion area—as is acknowledging that there have been additionally ladies of colour and trans and gender-expansive folks of colour affected by different issues, just like the historical past of compelled sterilization, and acknowledging that the struggle for reproductive justice is on a wider scale and spectrum than simply that alternative framework.
KA: Notably after the Dobbs choice, there was renewed media consideration on abortion rights, and there was some dialogue of reproductive justice extra broadly. However I believe there are nonetheless of us who usually are not conversant in the motion and the excellence between the 2 frameworks. What have you ever noticed about how persons are partaking with the motion after the Dobbs choice? Are you seeing new folks coming into the motion? Are you seeing completely different sorts of protection of the motion and the way that’s impacting theors’ observe: This text is from NPQ’s winter 2022 problem, “New Narratives for Well being.” On this dialog, Kitana Ananda, racial justice editor at NPQ, Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of Grantmaking at Groundswell, and Quanita Toffie, senior director of the Groundswell Motion Fund, talk about the historical past and present state of the reproductive justice motion in the US.
Click on right here to obtain this text because it seems within the journal, with accompanying paintings.
Kitana Ananda: I’d like to start out with speaking about Groundswell Fund’s work within the context of the broader reproductive justice motion. At Groundswell, you fund reproductive justice organizing led by folks of colour. For people who’re newer to this motion and language, are you able to communicate a little bit about what reproductive justice is, why it’s vital, and what makes reproductive justice organizing completely different from different kinds of organizing round abortion rights and entry or being “pro-choice”?
Naa Amissah-Hammond: Groundswell’s focus is on reproductive justice organizing, as you talked about, and on intersectional organizing by ladies of colour and trans folks of colour. And we use our grantee associate SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice—one of many founding organizations of the RJ [reproductive justice] motion—who outline RJ as a human proper. So, it’s grounded within the human rights framework—the best to bodily autonomy, to have a baby, to not have a baby, and to father or mother the youngsters that you’ve in protected and sustainable communities which might be free from state violence and likewise from injustice.
So what does that imply for us? We speak about reproductive justice as deeply intersectional. So, our grantees are Alaskan Native ladies organizing in opposition to toxics within the Arctic and the impacts that they may have on our well being and likewise the environment. They’re trans ladies of colour organizing in New York for housing justice, and who look to abolition and likewise, within the meantime, reforms to policing and prisons to assist trans communities. They’re Latinx ladies organizing on the border, and within the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, for abortion entry and immigrant justice. And we tie these points into the dialog round reproductive justice. And I believe the way in which that we speak about this work being completely different, and our grantees speak about it being completely different, is that it isn’t a slender focus. The professional-choice framework is a white feminist framework that singularly targeted on the important thing problem that was actually vital to white ladies specifically within the ’70s and ’80s: abortion rights. And that is tremendous vital for our communities, proper? It’s a problem that every one of our grantees work on. However it’s not the one problem our grantees work on.
We regularly increase up Audre Lorde’s phrases, “There’s no such factor as a single-issue battle as a result of we don’t dwell single-issue lives.”1 Our grantees are telling us again and again that we will’t have this dialog about abortion in Black communities if we’re not additionally speaking about maternal well being. We’ve to be speaking in regards to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. And we additionally must be organizing in that approach, as a result of that’s what brings the most individuals alongside in our struggle. So, I believe that’s how we see our grantees’ work as being completely different than only a slender focus, such because the pro-choice framework, that fairly often will solely be targeted on a authorized technique or typically advocacy technique, and doesn’t have a look at all the various completely different methods that teams are utilizing to vary hearts and minds and win reproductive freedom for the long term.
Quanita Toffie: To underscore what Naa already shared round reproductive justice being not nearly alternative, it’s additionally about entry—so, with the ability to afford to have an abortion, afford the associated fee related to touring tons of of miles to the closest clinic, and so forth—there isn’t any alternative when there isn’t any entry for our communities. The reproductive justice motion is rooted in racial justice. It’s centered and rooted within the racial justice framework. And that’s actually crucial, given the historical past of racism, classism, and sexism throughout the white feminist motion area—as is acknowledging that there have been additionally ladies of colour and trans and gender-expansive folks of colour affected by different issues, just like the historical past of compelled sterilization, and acknowledging that the struggle for reproductive justice is on a wider scale and spectrum than simply that alternative framework.
KA: Notably after the Dobbs choice, there was renewed media consideration on abortion rights, and there was some dialogue of reproductive justice extra broadly. However I believe there are nonetheless of us who usually are not conversant in the motion and the excellence between the 2 frameworks. What have you ever noticed about how persons are partaking with the motion after the Dobbs choice? Are you seeing new folks coming into the motion? Are you seeing completely different sorts of protection of the motion and the way that’s impacting theors’ observe: This text is from NPQ’s winter 2022 problem, “New Narratives for Well being.” On this dialog, Kitana Ananda, racial justice editor at NPQ, Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of Grantmaking at Groundswell, and Quanita Toffie, senior director of the Groundswell Motion Fund, talk about the historical past and present state of the reproductive justice motion in the US.
Click on right here to obtain this text because it seems within the journal, with accompanying paintings.
Kitana Ananda: I’d like to start out with speaking about Groundswell Fund’s work within the context of the broader reproductive justice motion. At Groundswell, you fund reproductive justice organizing led by folks of colour. For people who’re newer to this motion and language, are you able to communicate a little bit about what reproductive justice is, why it’s vital, and what makes reproductive justice organizing completely different from different kinds of organizing round abortion rights and entry or being “pro-choice”?
Naa Amissah-Hammond: Groundswell’s focus is on reproductive justice organizing, as you talked about, and on intersectional organizing by ladies of colour and trans folks of colour. And we use our grantee associate SisterSong’s definition of reproductive justice—one of many founding organizations of the RJ [reproductive justice] motion—who outline RJ as a human proper. So, it’s grounded within the human rights framework—the best to bodily autonomy, to have a baby, to not have a baby, and to father or mother the youngsters that you’ve in protected and sustainable communities which might be free from state violence and likewise from injustice.
So what does that imply for us? We speak about reproductive justice as deeply intersectional. So, our grantees are Alaskan Native ladies organizing in opposition to toxics within the Arctic and the impacts that they may have on our well being and likewise the environment. They’re trans ladies of colour organizing in New York for housing justice, and who look to abolition and likewise, within the meantime, reforms to policing and prisons to assist trans communities. They’re Latinx ladies organizing on the border, and within the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, for abortion entry and immigrant justice. And we tie these points into the dialog round reproductive justice. And I believe the way in which that we speak about this work being completely different, and our grantees speak about it being completely different, is that it isn’t a slender focus. The professional-choice framework is a white feminist framework that singularly targeted on the important thing problem that was actually vital to white ladies specifically within the ’70s and ’80s: abortion rights. And that is tremendous vital for our communities, proper? It’s a problem that every one of our grantees work on. However it’s not the one problem our grantees work on.
We regularly increase up Audre Lorde’s phrases, “There’s no such factor as a single-issue battle as a result of we don’t dwell single-issue lives.”1 Our grantees are telling us again and again that we will’t have this dialog about abortion in Black communities if we’re not additionally speaking about maternal well being. We’ve to be speaking in regards to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. And we additionally must be organizing in that approach, as a result of that’s what brings the most individuals alongside in our struggle. So, I believe that’s how we see our grantees’ work as being completely different than only a slender focus, such because the pro-choice framework, that fairly often will solely be targeted on a authorized technique or typically advocacy technique, and doesn’t have a look at all the various completely different methods that teams are utilizing to vary hearts and minds and win reproductive freedom for the long term.
Quanita Toffie: To underscore what Naa already shared round reproductive justice being not nearly alternative, it’s additionally about entry—so, with the ability to afford to have an abortion, afford the associated fee related to touring tons of of miles to the closest clinic, and so forth—there isn’t any alternative when there isn’t any entry for our communities. The reproductive justice motion is rooted in racial justice. It’s centered and rooted within the racial justice framework. And that’s actually crucial, given the historical past of racism, classism, and sexism throughout the white feminist motion area—as is acknowledging that there have been additionally ladies of colour and trans and gender-expansive folks of colour affected by different issues, just like the historical past of compelled sterilization, and acknowledging that the struggle for reproductive justice is on a wider scale and spectrum than simply that alternative framework.
KA: Notably after the Dobbs choice, there was renewed media consideration on abortion rights, and there was some dialogue of reproductive justice extra broadly. However I believe there are nonetheless of us who usually are not conversant in the motion and the excellence between the 2 frameworks. What have you ever noticed about how persons are partaking with the motion after the Dobbs choice? Are you seeing new folks coming into the motion? Are you seeing completely different sorts of protection of the motion and the way that’s impacting the
