Maya's Reflections on the State of the Reproductive Justice Movement
The Reproductive Justice movement became my political home in 2020. I was pregnant in the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, while national protests in support of the movement for Black Lives popped off almost daily. An abolitionist with some experience organizing with Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), I wasn’t yet sure how caretaking and mothering related to our freedom as a people. I always understood the two as separate. Eager to connect with other first-time mamas and parents, I started my role as the North Carolina Coordinator with SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective in March of 2020.
What would unfold over the next four-and-a-half years transformed myself, my relationships and my future. The Reproductive Justice framework provided me with the language to describe the significance and power of the care work I had done since I was a kid. I truly felt at home, and surrounded by people who understood both what was at stake, and how our vision for reproductive freedom offered demands to meet the moment.
The Reproductive Justice movement as a whole has achieved monumental wins in recent years, and has deepened our understanding of intersectionality, naming the fact that everyone would benefit from having bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom. While abortion access and the Black Maternal Health Crisis will always be central to the movement, I have been most excited to see conversations grow to include the lived experiences of queer and trans people accessing healthcare. More and more people are understanding the connection between reproductive autonomy and issues like climate crisis, policing, food and housing access, and global genocides like the ones we are witnessing today in Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo. I see more public conversations about abortion, doulas, paid family leave and healthcare as a human right. Much of this increased attention I believe is owed to the Reproductive Justice movement.
The wins in our movement have not come without challenges, conflict or setbacks. While just about everyone committed to advocating for reproductive healthcare access agrees on issues like abortion and doula access, there is tension and disagreement surrounding other issues, particularly those that are generally not understood to be in connection with reproductive healthcare access. I’ve witnessed conflict about the role and future of policing to address community violence, as well as troubling hesitation to name the genocide Palestinians are facing as a Reproductive Justice issue. It is imperative that as a movement we organize with a common understanding of the ways global systems of power interact deliberately and impact the lives of our communities. I believe that until we develop a movement-wide strategy that we can all get on board with, there will be significant limitations to our success.
More personally, the Reproductive Justice movement has stretched me and my leadership tremendously. I’ve developed muscles in training and facilitation, political education, writing and public speaking, and more. I’ve taken initiative in developing and leading programming across the state of North Carolina, building partnerships with other Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice organizations. Specifically, I developed two long-term, sustainable programs: Mothering in Abundance and Reproductive Justice Is, both of which aim to expand our understanding of the intersection of Reproductive Justice and other issues and movements. I’m grateful not only for the skills I’ve developed, but more importantly the relationships I’ve built along the way. I believe that our movement holds and becomes home for many skilled and powerful organizers.
I want to personally thank Camille and the Carolina Abortion Fund for their steadfast commitment to the work, our people, and pouring into organizers within the movement, and those who have left or been pushed out of the movement. CAF’s commitment to funding abortions has transformed the abortion landscape in the South, and Camille has transformed my understanding of joy and justice. Please consider donating to sustain CAF’s instrumental work.