We are now in an alarmingly hostile climate where abortion bans hurt all pregnant people. Safe, equitable access to abortion without shame or stigma cannot be accomplished without eliminating racial and economic disparities in reproductive health. There are 3 major frameworks to address reproductive oppression: reproductive health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice. Ultimately as in any movement, all 3 components: service, advocacy, and organizing are crucial. Leveraging relationships with grassroots community leaders, organizations, and policymakers, we aim to cultivate a culture of Reproductive Justice Advocacy and Organizing in Arizona.
People have the right to bear children, or not, and to parent the children they have in sustainable communities free from violence. From slavery to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration and over-policing of Black and Brown communities, systemic racism created and maintained the conditions of unequal access to resources to survive and thrive. Although it feels like the mountain we are climbing to justice gets steeper and steeper, we are deeply committed to training the next generation of abortion providers within a reproductive justice framework, delivering educational content and programs that help people from historically marginalized communities access reproductive health care and exercise autonomy over their bodies and lives, and engage building relationships, and mobilizing local policymakers, advocates, and community members toward an Arizona that provides the conditions for people to freely decide when and how to form families and raise children. Now is the time to break down silos and work together at the intersections.
Black women have historically and continue to experience some of the highest rates of violence, maternal mortality, and stress-related medical conditions than any group in the state and the country. Black women have also been subjected to a long history of reproductive control and are increasingly being denied access to abortion and comprehensive reproductive and gender-affirming health services. In partnership with the National Institute for Reproductive Health, Rooted Doula Collective, Arizona Birth Workers of Color, and Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro, we center the work and leadership of Black femme and transgender-led organizations as we forge alliances to improve the conditions of unequal access to resources for Black Arizonans and by extension of all marginalized and poor Arizonans.
