On Oct.16, Smith College hosted a panel, “From The Margins To The Center: How Black Women Advance Reproductive Justice Policy,” that discussed the vital role of Black women in reproductive justice efforts historically and presently.
A gallery walk style of displays, which showcased the Black women of the reproductive justice movement from the 19th century to present led into the panel.
The panel was presented by the Smith College Human Rights Initiative and was hosted in the Caroll Room of the Campus Center. President Sarah Willie-LeBreton, who previously worked on reproductive justice causes during the duration of her graduate program at Northwestern University, opened the talk with her own definition of the term “reproductive justice.”
“Reproductive justice goes a step further than reproductive rights. It looks more broadly at the systems that prevent young black women and girls and other marginalized persons from accessing the resources they need to make healthy decisions,” Willie-LeBreton said.
Crystal Fleming, professor of Africana studies, moderated the discussion, leading the three expert panelists, Sapna Khatri, Marcela Howell and Regina Davis Moss, through several complex questions regarding the 30th anniversary of the reproductive justice movement, racism within the American healthcare system and raising awareness on public policy for reproductive freedom.
Marcela Howell, the founder and CEO of In Our Own Voice, a national-state partnership that promotes the empowerment of Black women leaders in reproductive justice initiatives, began by saying that she started In Our Own Voice because she was tired of the press asking White women to speak on Black womens’ issues.
“Most of the time they got it wrong, and it was time to actually have Black women stand up and speak for themselves on issues that impacted their bodies and their families,” Howell said.
Howell emphasized that reproductive justice is a “holistic human rights framework,” a term that can cover a broad spectrum of issues that affect marginalized women across the country.
“It is about housing, food security, over policing, it is a number of things that make up the lived experience of Black women,” she said.
The second panelist, Sapna Khatri, director of the Reproductive Justice Unit and a representative from Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office, explained how the government sees reproductive justice as a legal issue, and has stalled on improving access for years. “We’ve had states look at reproductive health issues in the eye of the law for so long because we’ve made reproductive health a legal issue,” she said.
Khatri explained that her role as director of the Reproductive Justice Unit is important to her and she hopes to make the concept of reproductive justice more accessible to the Western Massachusetts area.
“We take this unit seriously. Within my first year, the first thing I did was make sure that community engagement was made a priority. We need to understand what these barriers look like,” she said.
The third panelist, Davis Moss, a reproductive justice expert and author of “Black Women’s Reproductive Health and Sexuality: A Holistic Public Health Approach,” expressed hope in the changes she has personally seen thus far.
Reproductive Justice organizations have become more influential in recent years and are now “in some of the highest rooms and the highest levels, and calling for these conversations,” she said.
Aghanwi Fon-Ndikum ’28, who is currently taking one of Dr. Fleming’s courses said that the panel educated her, but did not change her perspective on the issues.
“I never really heard much about reproductive justice. I know a lot about what’s going on with the discrimination in the healthcare system, so I think it’s pretty eye opening to come here and hear them talk about something I never really heard of before.”
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