Module I: An Introduction to Reproductive Justice

Module Review Information

The resources in this module were reviewed by the following members of CERCL-FP (Centering Equity, Race, and Cultural Literacy in Family Planning):  Biftu Mengesha, MD, MAS, Sanithia Williams, MD, FACOG,  Zoë Lucier-Julian, MD, MPH, Bhavik Kumar, MD, MPH, and Kristyn Brandi, MD, MPH, FACOG in Spring 2025. 

Learning Objectives

• Define the concepts of health equity, justice, structural racism, reproductive oppression, and intersectionality.
• Describe the framework of reproductive justice and differentiate this from reproductive health and reproductive rights.
• Summarize the history of injustices and reproductive oppression in obstetrics and gynecology as well as specifically in abortion and contraception care for marginalized communities, and understand how the legacy of reproductive oppression affects contemporary clinical care, research, and advocacy.
• Consider how a reproductive justice framework would directly apply to your practice and how this framework could be operationalized in clinical care, research, and advocacy.

Articles

Ross L. What is Reproductive Justice? In: Reproductive Justice Briefing Book: A Primer on Reproductive Justice and Social Change. The Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective and the Pro-Choice Public Education Project; 2007:4-5. Accessed April 2025. 

Pages 4-5 only:

https://www.protectchoice.org/downloads/Reproductive%20Justice%20Briefing%20Book.pdf

A New Vision. Forward Together. Published December 21, 2005. Accessed April 2025. 

A New Vision

Ko L. Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States.

Public Broadcasting Service

. Published January 29, 2016. Accessed April 2025. 

Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States

The Puerto Rico Pill Trials | American Experience | PBS. Accessed April 2025. 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-puerto-rico-pill-trials/

SisterSong and National Women’s Health Network. Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Statement of Principles. National Women’s Health Network. 2017:1-3. Accessed April 2025.

https://health.usf.edu/publichealth/chiles/fpqc/larc/~/media/043402D6CF0842DD95DC65E604B07B46.ashx

Premkumar A, Nseyo O, Jackson AV. Connecting Police Violence With Reproductive Health.

Obstet Gynecol

. 2017;129(1):153-156. doi:

10.1097/AOG.0000000000001731

Thompson TAM, Young YY, Bass TM, et al. Racism Runs Through It: Examining The Sexual And Reproductive Health Experience Of Black Women In The South.

Health Affairs

. 2022;41(2):195-202. doi:

10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01422

Addante AN, Eisenberg DL, Valentine MC, Leonard J, Maddox KEJ, Hoofnagle MH. The association between state-level abortion restrictions and maternal mortality in the United States, 1995-2017. Contraception. 2021;104(5):496-501. doi:

10.1016/j.contraception.2021.03.018

Kozhimannil KB, Hassan A, Hardeman RR. Abortion Access as a Racial Justice Issue. N Engl J Med. 2022;387(17):1537-1539. doi:

10.1056/NEJMp2209737

Hall B, Akwatu C, Danvers AA. Reproductive Justice as a Framework for Abortion Care. Clin Obstet Gynecol. 2023;66(4):655-664. doi:

10.1097/GRF.0000000000000811

Brown K, Plummer M, Bell A, et al. Black Women’s Lived Experiences of Abortion. Qual Health Res. 2022;32(7):1099-1113. doi:

10.1177/10497323221097622

Julian Z, Robles D, Whetstone S, et al. Community-informed models of perinatal and reproductive health services provision: A justice-centered paradigm toward equity among Black birthing communities.

Semin Perinatol

. 2020;44(5):151267. doi:

10.1016/j.semperi.2020.151267

Treder K, White KO, Woodhams E, Pancholi R, Yinusa-Nyahkoon L. Racism and the Reproductive Health Experiences of U.S.-Born Black Women.

Obstet Gynecol

. 2022;139(3):407-416. doi:

10.1097/AOG.0000000000004675

Treder KM, Amutah-Onukagha N, White KO. Abortion Bans Will Exacerbate Already Severe Racial Inequities in Maternal Mortality.

Womens Health Issues

. 2023;33(4):328-332. doi:

10.1016/j.whi.2023.04.007

Trending Topics

Voice IOO. The Impact on Alabama’s Supreme Court “Fetal Personhood” Decision on Black Women – In Our Own Voice. Published February 25, 2024. Accessed April 2025.

The Impact on Alabama’s Supreme Court “Fetal Personhood” Decision on Black Women

Standard pregnancy care is now dangerously disrupted in Louisiana, report reveals.

Morning Edition

. Published online March 19, 2024. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/19/1239376395/louisiana-abortion-ban-dangerously-disrupting-pregnancy-miscarriage-care

Read the full report here: 

Criminalized Care: How Louisiana’s Abortion Bans Endanger Patients and Clinicians. PHR. Accessed April 2025.

https://phr.org/our-work/resources/louisiana-abortion-bans/

Supplemental Resources

Video Content

MacLean Center. Melissa Gilliam, MD, MPH – Not Much Choice: Reproductive Justice and Women of Color. YouTube. Published Apr 7, 2017. Accessed April 2025.

Ross L, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. Reproductive Justice 101 trailer. YouTube. Published Oct 21, 2008. Accessed April 2025.

SisterSong, RHEDI. Reproductive Justice 101 Webinar. Innovating Education in Reproductive Health. Published May 1, 2019. Accessed April 2025.

Reproductive Justice 101 Webinar

Speed Art Museum. Southern Symbols: Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens. YouTube. Published Jan 4, 2018. Accessed April 2025.

Reproductive Justice in Clinical Practice

Julian Z, Robles D, Whetstone S, et al. Community-informed models of perinatal and reproductive health services provision: A justice-centered paradigm toward equity among Black birthing communities.

Seminars in Perinatology

. 2020;44(5):151267. doi:

10.1016/j.semperi.2020.151267

Choo E. The James Marion Sims Problem: How Doctors Can Avoid Whitewashing Medicine’s Racist History. NBCNews.com. Published July 23, 2019. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/james-marion-sims-problem-how-doctors-can-avoid-whitewashing-medicine-ncna880816

Prather C, Fuller TR, Jeffries WL, et al. Racism, African American Women, and Their Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Review of Historical and Contemporary Evidence and Implications for Health Equity.

Health Equity

. 2018;2(1):249-259. doi:

10.1089/heq.2017.0045

Downey MM, Gómez AM. Structural Competency and Reproductive Health.

AMA Journal of Ethics

. 2018;20(3):211-223. doi:

10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.3.peer1-1803

Romero D, Agénor M. US Fertility Prevention as Poverty Prevention. An Empirical Question and Social Justice Issue. Women’s Health Issues. 2009;19(6):355-364. doi:

10.1016/j.whi.2009.08.004

Dehlendorf C, Harris LH, Weitz TA. Disparities in Abortion Rates: A Public Health Approach.

Am J Public Health

. 2013;103(10):1772-1779. doi:

10.2105/AJPH.2013.301339

Downing RA, LaVeist TA, Bullock HE. Intersections of Ethnicity and Social Class in Provider Advice Regarding Reproductive Health.

Am J Public Health

. 2007;97(10):1803-1807. doi:

10.2105/AJPH.2006.092585

Rosenthal L, Lobel M. Gendered Racism and the Sexual and Reproductive Health of Black and Latina Women.

Ethn Health

. 2020;25(3):367-392. doi:

10.1080/13557858.2018.1439896

Harris LH, Wolfe T. Stratified Reproduction, Family Planning Care and the Double Edge of History.

Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol

. 2014;26(6):539-544. doi:

10.1097/GCO.0000000000000121

Reproductive Justice Exhibit Planning Team. Birthing Reproductive Justice: 150 Years of Images and Ideas. University of Michigan Library. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/reproductive-justice

Metzl JM, Roberts DE. Structural Competency Meets Structural Racism: Race, Politics, and the Structure of Medical Knowledge.

AMA Journal of Ethics

. 2014;16(9):674-690. doi:

10.1001/virtualmentor.2014.16.9.spec1-1409

Ford CL, Airhihenbuwa CO. Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis.

Am J Public Health

. 2010;100(S1):S30-S35. doi:

10.2105/AJPH.2009.171058

National Women’s Law Center, Law Students for Reproductive Justice. If You Really Care About Reproductive Justice, You Should Care About Transgender Rights! Published September 2015. Accessed April 2025.

https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/rj_and_transgender_fact_sheet.pdf

Gilliam ML, Neustadt A, Gordon R. A Call to Incorporate a Reproductive Justice Agenda into Reproductive Health Clinical Practice and Policy.

Contraception

. 2009;79(4):243-246. doi:

10.1016/j.contraception.2008.12.004

Gomez AM, Fuentes L, Allina A. Women or LARC First? Reproductive Autonomy and the Promotion of Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive Methods.

Perspect Sex Reprod Health

. 2014;46(3):171-175. doi:

10.1363/46e1614

Topic Focus: Incarceration and Immigration Detention

Cohen RD, Chang A. Federal Legislation Seeks Ban On Shackling Of Pregnant Inmates. NPR. Published December 5, 2018. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/05/673757680/federal-legislation-seeks-ban-on-shackling-of-pregnant-inmates

 

O’Connor E, Prakash N. Pregnant Women Said They Miscarried In Immigration Detention And Didn’t Get The Care They Needed. BuzzFeed News. Published July 9, 2018. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/pregnant-migrant-women-miscarriage-cpb-ice-detention-trump

Immigration Is A Reproductive Justice Issue. Reproaction. Published June 2018. Accessed April 2025.

Immigration Is A Reproductive Justice Issue

Taylor J. 5 Ways Immigration Justice Is Reproductive Justice. Center for American Progress. Published October 10, 2017. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2017/10/10/439514/5-ways-immigration-justice-reproductive-justice/

McLemore MR, Warner Hand Z. Making the Case for Innovative Reentry Employment Programs: Previously Incarcerated Women as Birth Doulas – A Case Study.

Int J Prison Health

. 2017;13(3-4):219-227. doi:

10.1108/IJPH-07-2016-0026

Perreira KM, Pedroza JM. Policies of Exclusion: Implications for the Health of Immigrants and Their Children.

Annu Rev Public Health

. 2019;40:147-166. doi:

10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-044115

National Women’s Law Center, Law Students for Reproductive Justice. If You Really Care About Criminal Justice, You Should Care About Reproductive Justice! Published October 2, 2014. Accessed April 2025.  

https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/criminal_justice_reproductive_justice_factsheet_10-3-14.pdf

Hayes CM, Sufrin C, Perritt JB. Reproductive Justice Disrupted: Mass Incarceration as a Driver of

Reproductive Oppression. Am J Public Health. 2020;110(S1):S21-S24. doi:

10.2105/AJPH.2019.305407

Topic Focus: Discrimination, Mistreatment, and Inequity

Altman MR, Cragg K, van Winkle T, et al. Birth includes us: Development of a community-led survey to capture experiences of pregnancy care among LGBTQ2S+ families.

Birth

. 2023;50(1):109-119. doi:

10.1111/birt.12704

Vedam S, Stoll K, Taiwo TK, et al. The Giving Voice to Mothers Study: Inequity and Mistreatment During Pregnancy and Childbirth in the United States.

Reproductive Health

. 2019;16(1):77. doi:

10.1186/s12978-019-0729-2

Mingus M. Disabled Women and Reproductive Justice. In: Reproductive Justice Briefing Book: A Primer on Reproductive Justice and Social Change. The Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective and the Pro-Choice Public Education Project; 2007:46-47. Accessed April 2025. P

ages 46-47 only:

https://www.protectchoice.org/downloads/Reproductive%20Justice%20Briefing%20Book.pdf

Lockhart PR. What Serena Williams’s Scary Childbirth Story Says About Medical Treatment of Black Women. Vox. Published January 11, 2018. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/11/16879984/serena-williams-childbirth-scare-black-women

Newkirk II VR. America’s Health Segregation Problem. The Atlantic. Published May 18, 2016. Accessed April 2025.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/americas-health-segregation-problem/483219/

Dehlendorf C, Ruskin R, Grumbach K, et al. Recommendations for Intrauterine Contraception: A Randomized Trial of the Effects of Patients’ Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status.

Am J Obstet Gynecol

. 2010;203(4):319.e1-319.e8. doi:

10.1016/j.ajog.2010.05.009

Thorburn S, Bogart LM. African American Women and Family Planning Services: Perceptions of Discrimination.

Women Health

. 2005;42(1):23-39. doi:

10.1300/J013v42n01_02

Wingo E, Ingraham N, Roberts SCM. Reproductive Health Care Priorities and Barriers to Effective Care for LGBTQ People Assigned Female at Birth: A Qualitative Study.

Women’s Health Issues

. 2018;28(4):350-357. doi:

10.1016/j.whi.2018.03.002

Moseson H, Zazanis N, Goldberg E, et al. The Imperative for Transgender and Gender Nonbinary Inclusion.

Obstet Gynecol

. 2020;135(5):1059-1068. doi:

10.1097/AOG.0000000000003816

Kalpakjian CZ, Kreschmer JM, Slavin MD, et al. Reproductive Health in Women with Physical Disability: A Conceptual Framework for the Development of New Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.

J Womens Health (Larchmt)

. 2020;29(11):1427-1436. doi:

10.1089/jwh.2019.8174

Topic Focus: Environmental Justice

Cook K. Environmental Justice: Woman Is The First Environment. In: Reproductive Justice Briefing Book: A Primer on Reproductive Justice and Social Change. The Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective and the Pro-Choice Public Education Project; 2007:62-63. Accessed April 2025. 

Pages

62-63

only:

https://www.protectchoice.org/downloads/Reproductive%20Justice%20Briefing%20Book.pdf

Lorenzo R.  At Standing Rock, Environmental Justice Is Reproductive Justice. Rewire News Group. Published September 20, 2016. Accessed April 2025.

At Standing Rock, Environmental Justice Is Reproductive Justice

D’Almeida K. The Flint Water Emergency Is a Reproductive Health Crisis. Rewire News Group. Published January 26, 2016. Accessed April 2025.

The Flint Water Emergency Is a Reproductive Health Crisis

People and Groups to Follow

• Abortion Care Network

  • X:

    @AbortionCare

• Access Reproductive Care – Southeast

  • X:

    @ARC_Southeast

• Advocates for Youth

  • X:

    @AdvocatesTweets

• All Above All

  • X:

    @AllAboveAll

• Black Mamas Matter Alliance

  •  X:

    @blkmamasmatter

• Dorothy Roberts, JD

  • X:

    @DorothyERoberts

• Forward Together

  , formerly Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice

  • X:

    @fwdtogether

• Ghazaleh Moayedi, DO, MPH

  • X:

    @dr_moayedi

• In Our Own Voice

  : National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda

  • X:

    @BlackwomensRJ

• Jamila Perritt, MD, MPH

  • X:

    @Reprorightsdoc

• Jessica Roach, MPH, RN

  • X:

    @

    JMRROOTTRJ

• Joia Crear-Perry

  • X:

    @doccrearperry

• Karen Scott, MD, MPH

  • X:

    @RJEpiOBWarrior

• Kwajelyn Jackson

  • X:

    @superkwa

• Monica McLemore, PhD, MPH,RN

  • Instagram:

    @mclemoremr

• National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health 

  • X:

    @LatinaInstitute

• National Network of Abortion Funds

  • X:

    @AbortionFunds

• New Voices for Repro Justice 

  • X:

    @newvoicesrj

• Renee Bracey Sherman

  • X:

    @RBraceySherman

• Rachel Hardeman, PhD, MPH

  • X:

    @RRHDr

• SisterSong 

  • X:

    @sistersong_woc

• SPARK! Reproductive Justice NOW 

  • X:

    @sparkrjnow

• Surge ReproJustice 

  • X:

    @surge4rj

• Toni Bond Leonard 

  • X:

    @DrToniMBond

• Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity 

  • X:

    @URGE_org

• We Testify

  , a program of the National Network of Abortion Funds

  • X:

    @AbortionStories

• Zoe Julian, MD, MPH

  • X: @doczo1