WHAT IS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE?
In the early 1990s, a group of Black women gathered with a shared frustration: the mainstream reproductive rights movement wasn’t speaking to their lives. While the national conversation focused on the legal right to abortion, these women—organizers, mothers, activists, and others—knew that true reproductive freedom meant much more than the ability to choose whether or not to give birth.
They knew the reality in their communities was shaped by racism, poverty, environmental injustice, and state violence. Many women were already raising children without access to affordable healthcare, safe neighborhoods, or supportive workplaces. Others were navigating fertility, gender identity, or immigration systems that denied them dignity and autonomy. The question they asked wasn’t just “Do we have the right to choose?” but “Do we have the resources, safety, and freedom to live and raise families as we choose?”
In 1994, during a national conference in Chicago, a collective of Black women coined the term Reproductive Justice—a framework that combined reproductive rights with social justice, rooted deeply in human rights principles and Black feminist theory. It became a powerful shift: from focusing narrowly on legal access to centering the lived experiences of marginalized people.
Pillars of Reproductive Justice
Inspired by human rights they believed, in its simplest form, that everyone has the right to:
* Not have a child/children
* Have a child/children
* Parent their children with all of the necessary support
* Sexual pleasure without procreation
Being grounded in Black feminist theory meant that reproductive freedom means addressing the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, ability—not in isolation, but together. Although created by Black women, Women of Color have added their lived experiences, amplifying the idea that reproductive freedom is meaningless without economic justice, healthcare access, education, housing, and freedom from violence.
Reproductive Justice is not just a policy goal, it’s a vision where all people can make decisions about their bodies, families, and futures, free from fear, shame, and oppression. RJ means justice is not theoretical but lived and felt, and people thrive not just survive.
