CUNY Law’s If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice is in solidarity with the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Black community at large. We echo BLSA’s condemnation of all members of law enforcement and all levels of government that actively and passively perpetuate anti-Black racism. We demand justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and every Black person whose life has been taken by anti-Black violence.
We also demand justice for Nina Pop, a Black transgender woman who was stabbed to death in Missouri in March, and Iyanna Dior, a Black transgender woman who was attacked by a mob in Minneapolis. Pop is at least the 10th transgender woman to die by violence in the United States in 2020, and Dior is one of many who are attacked in their own communities. All Black lives matter.
“Reproductive justice” was coined by the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, a group of Indigenous women, other women of color, and transgender people in 1994. Building on this work, SisterSong was founded in 1997 to form a national, multi-ethnic reproductive justice movement. SisterSong defines reproductive justice as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. Without the contributions of Black and Indigenous feminists the reproductive justice movement would not exist, and we thank them. We also reject the transmisogynistic, anti-Black reproductive rights framework adopted and furthered by white women that continues to exclude and erase Black people.
The creation of safe and sustainable communities, and thereby reproductive justice, requires the urgent abolition of prisons and policing and the transition of funding to community-controlled aid and services. The prison-industrial complex and modern policing descended from chattel slavery, which was legally eradicated with the enactment of the 13th Amendment in 1865 yet lives on today in the form of mass incarceration and state-sanctioned violence against Black people. The police, who serve as foot soldiers for the racist prison-industrial complex, as well as the existence of prison itself, are in direct opposition to the reproductive justice movement. These systems are not broken; they are working exactly how they are designed to work, and reform is not enough.
Women are the fastest growing prison population in the United States. Nationwide, women’s state prison populations grew 834 percent over nearly 40 years. Black women are two-to-three times more likely to be incarcerated than white women, and Black women ages 18-19 are four times more likely to be imprisoned than their white counterparts. In addition to the lack of healthcare for incarcerated women and other non-men incarcerated in women’s facilities, basic needs such as reproductive healthcare, management of menopause, nutrition, and treatment for substance abuse often go unprovided. Sixty-two percent of incarcerated women are mothers of minor children, and 80 percent of them serve as their children’s primary caretaker. If a child is put in foster care, a mother’s prison sentence could permanently sever family ties.
Approximately 47 percent, nearly half, of Black transgender people have been incarcerated at some point during their lifetime. Transgender people are at higher risks of abuse in prisons, jails, and juvenile detention centers than their cisgender counterparts. Transgender people, especially transgender women, are routinely incarcerated in men’s facilities and denied transition-related medical care.
Reproductive justice requires us to name and then eliminate all systems that maintain transmisogyny, all other forms of transantagonism, and anti-Black violence. We, as aspiring public interest lawyers, have an obligation to be bold in our quest for justice and work toward a future without them. We reiterate BLSA’s call to reaffirm our commitment to racial and social justice, and recommend supporting groups such as the Audre Lorde Project, the TJI Justice Project, and For the Gworls.
In solidarity,
CUNY If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice E-board
Tyler Sloan
JaLoni Owens
Anelle Morales-Rojas
Allison Koch
Elizabeth Gumport
Simone Harstead
Sarah Chung
Jacqueline Bonilla
Val Rigodon