Women of color have been trying to navigate
and have ownership of their bodies
since slavery.
I grew up in Chicago on the south side.
We dealt a lot with poverty, especially
after my dad was killed.
Poverty, food insecurity.
Unstable housing, things like that.
And then I headed off to a
Catholic girls school
and we weren't going to get any
comprehensive sex education.
And so I didn't know about my body.
I didn't know about birth control.
I didn't even really know...
understand my period.
The first time that I got
pregnant I had just gotten
out of high school so I was like 17.
You know I was not going to be a mom.
So I decided to have an abortion.
I was very, very lucky that
I didn't have to worry
about trying to come up with the money.
My mom and the guy paid for it.
Yeah, that was, that was luck.
And so I did have another relationship.
He was a much, much older guy and it was
just an unhealthy relationship.
He wasn't using condoms.
And he wasn't going to use condoms.
And so...
I'm 18 and this guy is 29 - 30.
Am I more powerful than him
in our relationship?
I don't think so.
He was abusive.
This didn't feel like a good love.
I was always crying.
I was always upset and unhappy.
And so I was making the
decision that I was going to be
leaving this relationship at some
point and I got pregnant again.
And you know at the very
beginning I thought about abortion,
but I, you know something in
my head I was just like you know,
I... I'm going to carry this
pregnancy to term.
I started writing my son love letters
when I was pregnant with him.
I just, I really wanted him.
I was going to try to work it out
with the father.
And so we got this apartment.
But it was horrible.
Yeah, I ended up getting
an order of protection.
You know my son, he didn't ever go
hungry, so we made it on a prayer.
We made it on a prayer.
The birth of my second child
came after.
I, you know I had met somebody,
gotten married. And I actually,
you know I planned her.
There were a series of things
that happened to put me on the
path to become a professional activist.
In the pro-choice movement
the conversation tended to
center on just abortion rights.
And women of color were like,
"That's not the totality of our lives."
"There's other things that...
are happening here."
Reproductive justice is the merging
of reproductive rights and social justice.
The ability to carry a
pregnancy to term, the ability to terminate
that pregnancy if...
the woman is not ready.
And the ability to parent the children that,
that she already has with all the adequate
and necessary supports
needed to do those things.
And so that is really the
reproductive justice model.
Every woman has the right to
make that decision for herself.