Module 1: an introduction to reproductive justice

Learning Objectives:

• Define the concepts of health equity, justice, structural racism, reproductive oppression, and intersectionality.
• Describe the theoretical 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.

Required Assignments:

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 May 2023. 
• Ko L. Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States. Public Broadcasting Service. Published January 29, 2016. Accessed May 2023. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states/
• The Puerto Rico Pill Trials | American Experience | PBS. Accessed May 2023. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-puerto-rico-pill-trials/
• 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

VIDEO presentations

• In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. The History of Reproductive Justice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihwvHHInrlU&t=. Published July 9, 2018.
• Crenshaw K. The Urgency of Intersectionality. TEDWomen 2016. https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality.

 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 May 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13mEzA1YAt8
• Ross L, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. Reproductive Justice 101 trailer. YouTube. Published Oct 21, 2008. Accessed May 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQHoImVzN1c
• SisterSong, RHEDI. Reproductive Justice 101 Webinar. Innovating Education in Reproductive Health. Published May 1, 2019. Accessed May 2023. https://www.innovating-education.org/2018/10/reproductive-justice-101-webinar/
• Speed Art Museum. Southern Symbols: Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens. YouTube. Published Jan 4, 2018. Accessed May 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vk7QlyhRjo

REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE IN CLINICAL PRACTICE

• Choo E. The James Marion Sims Problem: How Doctors Can Avoid Whitewashing Medicine’s Racist History. NBCNews.com. Published July 23, 2019. Accessed May 2023. 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 May 2023. 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 May 2023. 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 May 2023. 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 May 2023. 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 May 2023. 
• https://reproaction.org/resource/immigration-is-a-reproductive-justice-issue/
• Taylor J. 5 Ways Immigration Justice Is Reproductive Justice. Center for American Progress. Published October 10, 2017. Accessed May 2023. 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 May 2023.  
• https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/criminal_justice_reproductive_justice_factsheet_10-3-14.pdf

TOPIC FOCUS: DISCRIMINATION, MISTREATMENT, AND INEQUITY

• 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 May 2023.
• Pages 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 May 2023. 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 May 2023. 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 May 2023.
• 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 May 2023. https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2016/09/20/standing-rock-environmental-justice-reproductive-justice/
• D’Almeida K. The Flint Water Emergency Is a Reproductive Health Crisis. Rewire News Group. Published January 26, 2016. Accessed May 2023. https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2016/01/26/flint-water-emergency-reproductive-health-crisis/

Trending topics

• Hayes CM, Sufrin C, Perritt JB. Reproductive Justice Disrupted: Mass Incarceration as a Driver of Reproductive Oppression. Am J Public Health. 2020;110(Suppl 1):S21-S24. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2019.305407
• Moseson H, Fix L, Ragosta S, et al. Abortion Experiences and Preferences of Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender-Expansive People in the United States. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2021;224(4):376.e1-376.e11. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2020.09.035
• Krempasky C, Harris M, Abern L, Grimstad F. Contraception Across the Transmasculine Spectrum. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020;222(2):134-143. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2019.07.043
• Bray SRM, McLemore MR. Demolishing the Myth of the Default Human That Is Killing Black Mothers. Front Public Health. 2021;9:675788. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.675788
• Londras F, Cleeve A, Rodriguez M, Farrell A,  Furgalska M, Lavelanet A. The Impact of Criminalisation on Abortion-related Outcomes: A Synthesis of Legal and Health Evidence. BMJ Global Health. 2022;7(12):e010409. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010409