In this Reproductive Justice (RJ) class, we focused on the history of reproductive rights, or the lack thereof, starting with enslaved women and extending to modern day issues surrounding Roe v. Wade. This class really opened my eyes to the realities of what RJ stands for. For a long time, the only thing I associated with the movement was the ongoing battle in multiple states about abortion rights. I didn’t stop to think about how else reproductive rights were impacted by state and federal laws, who was impacted by them the most, or how RJ isn’t always about abortion. Reproductive Justice has three main pillars, the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to raise said child in a safe and healthy environment. This class taught me that there are so many factors that go into providing that environment or safely having a child in general.
I felt as though I had a greater understanding of the issues spoken about in this class as we had weekly annotations of articles written by medical professionals, lawyers, social workers, and the individuals who started the Reproductive Justice movement themselves. I was very passionate and continue to be about RJ. These issues aren’t just women’s issues, they impact families and entire communities.
Every few weeks we had journals where we reflected upon what we recently learned about. Here’s my last journal of the semester. I write about how my understanding of the class has impacted my research for the podcast I made about an RJ issue in our hometown.