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SisterLove, Inc believes that everyone should have complete autonomy to decide If, when, and how they become parents. Abortion is absolutely an essential part of reproductive justice, but there are other pieces that reproductive justice entails, especially as it pertains to marginalized persons. Reproductive justice must include HIV care, gender-affirming healthcare, and comprehensive pregnancy care. Attacks on Black women’s reproductive justice are inextricably connected with and intertwined with white supremacy.
On December 1st, Dobbs v. Jackson is set to have oral arguments before the Supreme Court. Dobbs v. Jackson is the first case that the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of a pre-viability abortion ban since the landmark case Roe v. Wade. The 15-week abortion ban makes it near impossible for people in Mississippi to exercise their right to choose how or if they want to become parents. This burden falls especially hard on lower-income birthing people and Black women and femmes who may not have the means to afford to travel, miss work or find childcare while they have their abortion.
Mississippi has been one of the top states in restricting the access to abortion. The 15-week ban only has exceptions for medical emergencies. This ban is similar to ones we have seen this year, that puts child-bearing persons up against an arbitrary clock that commences to run before they even know they’re pregnant. These types of bans increase the financial burdens that pregnant people have to face trying to get the procedure, especially those without comprehensive health insurance. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the country and this type of ban impacts all people in the state because most will not be able to afford to travel to get an abortion. The state has successfully limited abortion access to one facility, the Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization. Clients who use this clinic are required to make two in-person visits to the clinic (at least 24 hours in between visits) forcing some to travel hundreds of miles, in some cases, twice to and from the facility.
The need for abortions out paces what the clinic would have the capacity to handle even if there was no ban putting a time on when a person elected to have the procedure. Mississippi also has the highest percentage of Black residents in the country, putting Black people at the center of the most impacted by this type of ban. Mississippi also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. The infant mortality rate of Black infants is higher compared to white infants. Black people are fighting to live, give birth to healthy children and can’t even be afforded that, the abortion ban is just another injustice that we have to gear up to fight against.
In 1989, Faye Wattleton, the first Black woman to serve as president of Planned Parenthood stood on the steps of the Supreme Court to condemn a decision made by the Court to limit abortion access. The case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services involved state funded abortions at public facilities and the prohibition on public employees conducting abortions. The law at issue in Webster also prohibited counseling in support of abortion and required doctors to conduct viability tests for the fetus when a pregnant person was 20 weeks or more pregnant. Faye Wattletone proclaimed the case was a direct attack on low-income persons or persons who depended on state funding to be able to pay for the procedure.
That same year, 1989, 16 Black women published a collective statement that advocated for equal access to abortion. The statement was crafted by Black women who didn’t feel empowered to share their stories. Today at demonstrations, women are encouraged to use this type of storytelling to amplify the issues that they faced in their journey to obtain their abortions and exercise agency over their bodies. The pamphlet talked about Black women’s fight to have ownership over their bodies and how racism and poverty impacted their ability to have ownership over their bodies. This document birthed a movement and an increase in Black women taking back their power and using their stories and voices to change policy and put a spotlight on intersectionality and the impact of abortion bans on Black women.
Echoing the sentiments of Faye Wattleton, America is still sending the message that Black people cannot make choices for themselves, and exercise their own autonomy. Black women historically have been the subjects of cruel experimentation and exploitation. Black women have been very active in reproductive politics and continue to do so, on local, state and federal levels. All too often we are left out of conversations entirely, but we will not be kicked out of a movement we built. We Remember.
Reproductive Freedom means:
- The right to comprehensive age-appropriate information about sexuality and reproduction.
- The right to choose to have a child.
- The right to good, affordable health care to assure a safe pregnancy and delivery.
- The right to health services to help the infertile achieve pregnancy.
- The right to choose not to have a child.
- The right to the full range of contraceptive services and appropriate information about reproduction.
- The right to choose to end an unwanted pregnancy.
- The right to safe, legal, affordable abortion services.
- The right to make informed choices.
- The right to easily accessible health care that is proven to be safe and effective.
- The right to reproductive health and to make our own reproductive choices.
Reproductive freedom is so important to Black women because our own bodies were stolen from our homeland. We were beaten, raped and denied justice at every turn. To provide a few examples of legal attacks on Black women’s autonomy we can look at the following: Banks’ Administrator v. Marksberry an 1823 case that affirmed that slave masters owned Black women, their children and their future descendants. The eugenics movement that deemed Black people genetically unfit or inferior to have children. State sponsored violence in the form of forcible sterilization, where threats of termination of state benefits were used to coerce Black women into being sterilized. The birthplace of modern gynecology was stolen from our bodies, invasive medical examinations and procedures done on our bodies without our consent. Black women didn’t have the power to choose to have children and often were forced to carry the children of vicious slave masters.
Women of color are most likely to die from illegal abortions, which is why it is paramount that Black people have access to safe and affordable abortions. There are many reasons why a person may elect not to have children, these reasons should not be policed or qualified as being good enough, if people don’t want to become parents that is their right. The Hyde Amendment continues to block people who receive Medicaid, many of them young and Black, from receiving public assistance for abortion access. Reproductive justice is racial justice, economic justice and LGBTQ+ justice. Black women continue to be at the forefront of these movements, using their voices and their stories to impact policy and the lives of all child bearing persons. Black women take care of their communities by first taking care of themselves, this means controlling their autonomy and the freedom to make decisions about their own reproduction.
Sexism and anti-woman’s choice ideology shapes modern history and legislation. This is the same nation that elected a president who bragged about sexually assaulting women, legislators openly adopting and attempting to enforce abortion bans that legal scholars have deemed as unconstitutional on their face. This shows a lack of respect for precedent and jurisprudence and a commitment to an oppressive state. Additionally, there are explicit biases that are informing anti-choice arguments. Black people and their decisions are shrouded in racism and judgment. Black people deserve to be able to make choices for themselves free of the unnecessary influence of others. Abortion bans are birthed from a long line of state-sanctioned denials of Black autonomy and must be stopped. Access to safe, affordable abortions for pregnant persons is a requirement. The restrictions on abortion continues to have a disproportionate harm on Black people.
You can get involved by donating to abortion funds across the nation. Following the work of reproductive justice organizations and staying on top of your representatives about legislation. The issues discussed in this piece are also discussed at length in a policy brief that SisterLove helped craft called the Black RJ Policy Agenda. To read the policy agenda and learn more about the work black-led organizations are doing to dismantle reproductive oppression, click here. To donate to a local abortion fund, become a montly SisterLove supporter. Every dollar will go toward defending the bodily autonomy and reproductive health of women and birthing persons.
