Reproductive Justice Team

*Women’s March, October 2, 2021, Urbana, Illinois (Women’s Law Society, UIUC)*

The Struggle Today

Reproductive justice encompasses racial equality, economic security for families, contraception access, sex education, gender equality, and abortion rights and access. Huge changes are moving through the nation right now – abortion rights are being squelched in half of the country, while the other half girds to ensure access to reproductive healthcare for all who need it.

Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion nationwide. But fifty years of persistent work by an anti-choice minority has eroded abortion rights. The Supreme Court has been packed with justices hostile to reproductive rights. States enacted over 100 restrictions on abortion in 2021. Altogether, over 1,300 abortion restrictions were enacted in states since 1973.

On September 1, 2021, Texas outlawed abortions after approximately six weeks of pregnancy – before many pregnant persons even know that they are pregnant. To avoid judicial review, the Texas law has a “bounty hunter” or vigilante provision that enables ordinary citizens to sue anyone who helps someone get a banned abortion. If you drive a friend, or give her money, to get an abortion, a complete stranger may sue you, and you would pay a $10,000 bounty if you lose in court. The Supreme Court has allowed the Texas law to stand.

Twenty-six states are certain or likely to ban abortions as soon as this year, affecting 58% of women of reproductive age. Illinois is an oasis of reproductive healthcare surrounded by states in jeopardy. In 2020, nearly 10,000 patients from out of state came to Illinois for abortions. The number has been increasing yearly, and the flood of visitors is barely beginning.

Over 50% of abortions are now medication abortions, or self-managed abortions (SMAs), typically done at home, rather than surgical abortions that are done in a clinic. A prescription is required for the medication in the United States but not in 98 other countries.

“African-American and Puerto Rican women accounted for an estimated 80% of deaths from unsafe, illegal abortions in New York in the 1960s. In Georgia between 1965 and 1967, the African-American maternal death rate due to unsafe, illegal abortions was 14 times higher than for whites.”

From African-American Women and Abortion, by Loretta J. Ross, in Abortion Wars: A Half Century of Struggle, 1950-2000, edited by Rickie Solinger (1998)

Reproductive Justice and Unitarian Universalists

As Unitarian Universalists we advocate for reproductive rights:

The right to have children, including freedom from coerced sterilization and contraception
The right not to have children, including access to contraception and abortion
The right to quality reproductive healthcare
The right to self-determination regarding one’s body and sexuality, free from oppression and shame
The right to education and access, in order to make free and informed reproductive choices

What is more, we advocate for reproductive justice, which is broader than reproductive rights. Reproductive justice is the framework created by women of color to integrate reproductive rights with other social justice movements. It recognizes that women of color have faced a history of systemic racism and discrimination, unjust immigration policies, economic insecurity, forced sterilization, forced contraception, and lack of access to healthcare.

The reproductive justice movement envisions the liberation of people of all genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, ages, classes, and cultural and racial identities. We seek for everyone:

Accurate information about sexuality and reproduction
Control of personal reproductive decisions
High quality, comprehensive medical and reproductive health care
Paid parental leave
Affordable childcare
Living wages
Safe and supported housing
Access to voting and the political process
Affordable legal representation
Fair immigration policies
The absence of individual and institutional violence

Achieving these goals requires building coalitions with allied communities, organizing, communicating our values and acting on them with persistence.

“I don’t think I would be a good mother right now.”
The decision my friend had to make was a moral decision. It wasn’t about abstract issues of personal rights or her own desires. It was about her view of right and wrong, including the right time to have a child. Above all, it was about the importance of being a good mother.

From Rene Denfeld, Forward in The Abortion Myth, by Leslie Cannold (2000)

Your Voice Counts

Take charge and own a piece of the Reproductive Justice Team! Many courses of action are open to you, including but not limited to:

Plan a panel event
Write op-eds (opinion articles)
Organize a march or demonstration
Research legislation
Host a film party or book discussion group
Develop a community fundraiser for abortion access
Promote education on self-managed abortions
Help visitors coming to town for reproductive healthcare

After a 15-year-old girl told her parents – Connie and Carl Scott – and her 16-year-old boyfriend and his parents that she was pregnant, the Scotts’ home was violently invaded by the boyfriend, his parents and friends; their daughter was taken from them in the middle of the night by law-enforcement officers determined to stop her from having an abortion; she was put into foster care and, finally, ordered by a judge not to abort the pregnancy.

From The Spokesman-Review, from The New York Times, September 25, 1995

Contact Information

Participation in the Reproductive Justice Team is open to people in the community who share our values. If you have questions or would like to become more directly involved in reproductive justice activities, please contact us at reprojustice@uucuc.org.