I am begging people to understand that reproductive rights is as much the right to become and remain pregnant as it is to terminate a pregnancy.
Encouraging all people capable of being pregnant to get their tubes tied or get a hysterectomy isn’t the solution you think it is.
Most people who get abortions do so because they want to be able to get pregnant in the future.
Back-alley abortions often leave people unable to become pregnant again, even if they want to. Legal, safe abortion ensures that a person can terminate a pregnancy while still retaining the option and ability to become pregnant again.
PoC, disabled people, and trans and intersex people have historically been barred from the right to get pregnant and reproduce. These marginalized groups have faced sterilization and maternal mortality for a long time.
If you think reproductive justice is only about the right to *not* be pregnant, you are woefully misinformed.
Reproductive justice means people should be able to control their own bodies, whether it means ending or preventing a pregnancy, or becoming pregnant and remaining pregnant.
Reproductive justice means that healthcare providers should and must address the barriers and dangers PoC, disabled people, and trans and intersex people face when it comes to obstetrics and gynecology.
Reproductive justice means lowering the maternal mortality rate for black people in America.
Reproductive justice means not sterilizing disabled people and providing safe options for disabled people who want to become pregnant.
Reproductive justice means acknowledging that trans people may want to become pregnant and not mandating they be sterilized in order to legally transition.
Reproductive justice means not sterilizing intersex babies and children in the attempt to make them fit into a dyadic, binary sex.
Reproductive justice is not just about abortions.