Reproductive Rights as Human Rights

Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice

Zakiya Luna

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781479831296
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479804146
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Health Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

Reveals both the promise and the pitfalls associated with a human rights approach to the women of color-focused reproductive rights activism of SisterSong

How did reproductive justice—defined as the right to have children, to not have children, and to parent—become recognized as a human rights issue? In Reproductive Rights as Human Rights, Zakiya Luna highlights the often-forgotten activism of women of color who are largely responsible for creating what we now know as the modern-day reproductive justice movement.

Focusing on SisterSong, an intersectional reproductive justice organization, Luna shows how, and why, women of color mobilized around reproductive rights in the domestic arena. She examines their key role in re-framing reproductive rights as human rights, raising this set of issues as a priority in the United States, a country hostile to the concept of human rights at home.

An indispensable read, Reproductive Rights as Human Rights provides a much-needed intersectional perspective on the modern-day reproductive justice movement.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Restrictive Domestication: Human Rights and US Exceptionalism
• 2. Pushed to Human Rights: Marginalization in the US Women’s Movement
• 3. Pulled to Human Rights: Engagement with Global Gatherings
• 4. Training the Trainers amidst Backlash
• 5. Marching toward Human Rights or Reproductive Justice?
• 6. Writing Rights and Responsibility
• 7. “They’re All Intertwined”: Developing Human Rights Consciousness
• 8. “Puppies and Rainbows” or Pragmatic Politics? Organizations Engaging with Human Rights
• Conclusion: Making Utopias Real
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Methods
• Appendix B: Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Notes
• References
• Index
• About the Author