Reproductive Justice Resources

Books:

  • Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective — for almost four decades, Our Bodies, Ourselves has been the introductory book for reproductive health care. What was once focused solely on women’s health issues like pregnancy and menopause has expanded over the years to address issues like poverty, race, and gender identity, and their impact on reproductive health care, making it stand the test of time
  • The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolutionby Jonathan Eig — Before there was legal abortion, there was the battle for contraception itself and the ability to prevent a pregnancy from occurring in the first place
  • The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler — for many of those — often teens — who did give birth, they did it in secrecy, and their children were stolen from them and given to “better” families to raise
  • The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women’s Rights and How to Fight Back by Gloria Feldt –Feldt, the former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, documents the beginning of the onslaught, which escalated during the Bush administration, in her now 10-year-old but still extremely insightful book
  • PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by Katha Pollitt — Can people win back their reproductive rights when they are ashamed to even talk about abortion?
  • Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement by Jennifer Nelson — Nelson’s book brings to the forefront the women of color vocally advocating for legal abortion rights — often in opposition to those in their own community. It’s a must-read for those who want to learn how the battle for abortion rights evolved into reproductive justice
  • Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction in America by Jeanne Flavin — Flavin explains in detail how women are targeted and punished through the court system while pregnant or raising children, especially when they don’t conform to society’s standard idea of what constitutes being an ideal mother
  • Radical Reproductive Justice edited by Loretta J. Ross, Lynn Roberts, Erika Derkas, Whitney Peoples, and Pamela Bridgewater Toure — This anthology assembles two decades’ of work initiated by SisterSong Women of Color Health Collective, creators of the human rights-based “reproductive justice” framework to move beyond polarized pro-choice/pro-life debates. Rooted in Black feminism and built on intersecting identities, this revolutionary framework asserts a woman’s right to have children, to not have children, and to parent and provide for the children they have
  • Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America by Rickie Solinger — A sweeping chronicle of women’s battles for reproductive freedom throughout American history, Pregnancy and Powerexplores the many forces–social, racial, economic, and political–that have shaped women’s reproductive lives in the United States
  • 1 in 3: These Are Our Stories edited by Advocates for Youth — 1 in 3 women in the United States will have an abortion in her lifetime. The 1 in 3 Campaign is about ending the cultural stigma and shame women are made to feel around abortion. By sharing stories, we can empower others to end their silence and encourage all supporters of abortion access to publicly take a stand

Ted Talks:

Pod Casts:

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