Reproductive justice in the Colombian armed conflict.

This study explores the impacts of armed conflict on women's sexual and reproductive health in Colombia, building on a reproductive justice perspective to analyse original interviews with stakeholders in healthcare, women's rights, and peacebuilding. The analysis reveals that war affects women's sexual and reproductive health in three ways, through violent politicisation, collateral damage, and intersectional dimensions. First, multiple armed actors have used women's health as an instrument in politically motivated strategies to increase their power, assigning political meaning to sexuality and reproduction within the context of war. Second, women's health has also suffered from secondary damage of conflict resulting from a decay in healthcare service provision and an unmet need for healthcare services among those affected by sexual and reproductive violence. Third, marginalised women have been particularly affected by a discriminatory nexus of poverty, ethnicity, and geographic inequality. The paper concludes with a reflection on the opportunities for reproductive justice in Colombia.

Lições de Justiça Reprodutiva para catalisar estratégias de incidência durante a crise do Zika no Brasil / Reproductive Justice Lessons for Catalyzing Advocacy Strategies during Zika Crisis in Brazil

Resumo Revisitaremos uma constelação de respostas para garantir justiça reprodutiva para mulheres e meninas durante a crise do Zika no Brasil. As ações relatadas foram conduzidas pela Anis - Instituto de Bioética, uma ONG feminista. Argumentamos que, durante as emergências sanitárias, é necessário o uso de lentes feministas interseccionais para construir respostas efetivas e sensíveis às questões de gênero, em favor de mulheres e meninas. Apresentamos três táticas de incidência utilizadas na luta por justiça reprodutiva durante a crise do Zika: 1) construir narrativas baseadas em histórias de vida que retratem os efeitos desproporcionais da crise em mulheres e meninas; 2) produzir dados baseados em evidências para catalisar estratégias de incidência para revisão legal e de políticas públicas; 3) promover oportunidades para o fortalecimento de alianças e movimentos, bem como o compartilhamento de poder por meio de atividades de mobilização comunitária. Reconhecemos a importância de responder às necessidades das populações em tempo real, e para isso torna-se fundamental que as evidências sobre os impactos das emergências em saúde pública sejam produzidas e compartilhadas de maneira ágil. Os esforços em incidência não são estratégias fragmentadas, pois garantir a justiça reprodutiva exige uma estrutura abrangente e transformadora, incluindo soluções que envolvam o cotidiano das pessoas comuns e suas experiências de vida.

Abstract This article aims to revisit a constellation of responses to guarantee reproductive justice for women and girls during the Zika crisis in Brazil, that were conducted by Anis - Institute of Bioethics, a Brazilian feminist NGO. We argue that intersectional feminist lenses and gender-sensitive responses are necessary to build effective efforts for women and girls during a public health emergency. As such, we present three concomitant and intersectional learned tactics we used to fight for reproductive justice during the Zika crises, but also in its aftermath: 1. To build storytelling narratives that portray the disproportional effects of the crisis on women and girls; 2. To produce evidence-based data to catalyze advocacy strategies for legal and policy review; 3. To promote movement building opportunities and sharing power through community mobilization activities. We assume the importance of providing immediate evidence and gender sensitive framings to inform real-time public health responses. Advocacy efforts should not be seen as fragmented strategies, since ensuring reproductive justice demands a comprehensive and transformative framework that include solutions for multiple aspects of real-life experiences.

Justicia reproductiva en Uruguay: resultados materno perinatales en el Sistema Nacional Integrado de Salud / Reproductive justice in Uruguay Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes in the Integrated National Health System / Justiça reprodutiva no Uruguai: resultados maternos e perinatais no Sistema Nacional Integrado de Saúde

Introducción: la justicia reproductiva es la capacidad de las personas y las sociedades de poder concretar los derechos sexuales y reproductivos. Por el contrario, la injusticia reproductiva (IR) expone la presencia de riesgos para el proceso de desarrollo durante el embarazo y la primera infancia. Objetivo: describir la evolución de un conjunto de indicadores vinculados a la justicia reproductiva en el Sistema Nacional Integrado de Salud (SNIS) de Uruguay en los últimos 12 años y comparar las tendencias entre el subsector público y el subsector privado. Metodología: estudio descriptivo, retrospectivo, de un conjunto de indicadores incluidos en los objetivos de desarrollo sostenibles (ODS) y de los objetivos sanitarios nacionales. Se analizaron razón de mortalidad materna (MM), incidencia de parto pretérmino (PPT), bajo peso al nacer (BPN) y sífilis congénita (SC), en el subsector público y privado del SNIS, durante los últimos 12 años. Resultados: la razón de MM en el período de tiempo analizado ha sido siempre superior en el subsector público, salvo en el año 2015. La incidencia de PPT en el período de tiempo ha oscilado entre 8,6% y 10%. Ésta es superior en el subsector público, salvo en algunos períodos donde es mayor en el subsector privado. La incidencia de BPN es superior siempre en el subsector público, con su mayor incidencia en 2022, de 9,3. La SC siempre fue superior en el subsector público desde 1,3 a 7,1, mientras que en el subsector privado los valores van de 0,2 a 0,6. Conclusiones: la diferencia en estos indicadores de salud perinatal entre los dos subsectores de atención de nuestro país refleja que a pesar de contar con un SNIS, existe una disparidad que impacta sobre los resultados de indicadores finales e intermedios, determinando así la existencia de una IR.

Introduction: Reproductive justice is the ability of individuals and societies to realize sexual and reproductive rights. On the contrary, reproductive injustice (RI) exposes the presence of risks to the developmental process during pregnancy and early childhood. Objective: To describe the evolution of a set of indicators related to reproductive justice in the Integrated National Health System (SNIS) of Uruguay over the last 12 years and compare trends between the public and private subsectors. Methodology: A descriptive, retrospective study of a set of indicators included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and national health objectives was conducted. Maternal mortality ratio (MMR), incidence of preterm birth (PTB), low birth weight (LBW), and congenital syphilis (CS) were analyzed in the public and private subsectors of the SNIS over the past 12 years. Results: During the analyzed period the maternal mortality ratio has always been higher in the public subsector, except in the year 2015. The incidence of preterm birth during the period has ranged between 8.6% and 10%. It is higher in the public subsector, except in some periods where it is higher in the private subsector. The incidence of low birth weight is always higher in the public subsector, with its highest incidence in 2022 at 9.3. Congenital syphilis has always been higher in the public subsector, ranging from 1.3 to 7.1, while in the private subsector, the values range from 0.2 to 0.6. Conclusions: The difference in these perinatal health indicators between the two healthcare subsectors in our country reflects that despite having an Integrated National Health System, there is a disparity that impacts the results of final and intermediate indicators, thus determining the existence of reproductive injustice.

Introdução: A justiça reprodutiva é a capacidade dos indivíduos e das sociedades de poderem realizar seus direitos sexuais e reprodutivos. A injustiça reprodutiva (IR), por outro lado, expõe a presença de riscos ao processo de desenvolvimento durante a gravidez e a primeira infância. Objetivo: descrever a evolução de um conjunto de indicadores relacionados à justiça reprodutiva no Sistema Nacional Integrado de Saúde (SNIS) do Uruguai nos últimos 12 anos e comparar as tendências entre os subsetores público e privado. Metodologia: estudo descritivo e retrospectivo de um conjunto de indicadores incluídos nos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (SDGs) e nas metas nacionais de saúde. A taxa de mortalidade materna (MM), a incidência de parto prematuro (PTB), baixo peso ao nascer (BPN) e sífilis congênita (SC) foram analisadas no subsetor público e privado do SNIS nos últimos 12 anos. Resultados: A taxa de mortalidade materna foi maior no subsetor público durante o período analisado, exceto em 2015. A incidência de nascimento pré-termo no período variou entre 8,6 e 10%. Ela é maior no subsetor público, exceto em alguns períodos em que é maior no subsetor privado. A incidência de baixo peso ao nascer é sempre maior no subsetor público, com sua maior incidência em 2022, com 9,3. A sífilis congênita sempre foi mais alta no subsetor público, de 1,3 a 7,1, enquanto no subsetor privado os valores variam de 0,2 a 0,6. Conclusões: A diferença nesses indicadores de saúde perinatal entre os dois subsetores de atendimento em nosso país reflete que, apesar da existência de um Sistema Nacional de Saúde Integrado, há uma disparidade que impacta nos resultados dos indicadores finais e intermediários, determinando assim a existência de uma injustiça reprodutiva.

Reproductive Justice Beyond Borders: Global Feminist Solidarity in the Post-Roe Era.

The global impact of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and the backlash towards reproductive justice that it represents warrant a global feminist response informed by broad theoretical and geopolitical lenses. We consider how a solidaristic, transnational feminist movement might learn from Latin American feminist movements that have been successful in uniting broad coalitions in the fight for reproductive justice as situated within far-reaching political goals. The success of such a global movement must be decolonial and must contend with the fact that overlapping realities of global inequality, severe poverty, extractivism, and western-backed violence are fundamentally implicated in reproductive justice.

Abortion access in the Americas: a hemispheric and historical approach.

This perspective article situates the 2022 United States (U.S.) Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973) within the broader history of abortion rights activism and legislation in the greater Americas. The U.S. public has stereotyped Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as socially conservative regarding gender issues and anti-reproductive rights. But twenty-first-century LAC presents a more complicated landscape than this dominant narrative suggests. In the past 15 years, political, legislative, and public health advances and setbacks across the region provide both a blueprint for re-establishing access to safe and legal abortion and a warning on the consequences of the criminalization of abortion for the U.S. Employing a narrative approach that summarizes recent interdisciplinary literature, this perspective traces the history of the expansion of abortion access in the Americas. Mexico (2007, 2023), Uruguay (2012), Argentina (2020), and Colombia (2022) legalized abortion on demand within specific timeframes. These expansions coexist with severe restrictions on abortion in various nations including Haiti (1835), the Dominican Republic (1884, 2009), Honduras (1985, 2021), El Salvador (1997), and Nicaragua (2006), as well as some states in the United States (2022). This perspective finds that legalization occurs when feminist activists eschew U.S.-based feminist rhetoric of individual rights and choice to reframe abortion as a form of gender-based violence within a discourse of health and wellbeing as a human right. According to this perspective, restrictions on access to the procedure constitute a form of violence against women and people capable of bearing children and violate human rights.

Assisted reproduction technologies and reproductive justice in the production of parenthood and origin: Uses and meanings of the co-produced gestation and the surrogacy in Brazil.

This article examines the construction of parenthood, drawing on Brazilian cisgender, heterosexual, and homosexual couples' experiences in using assisted reproduction technologies (ART), particularly the surrogacy. For that purpose, we interviewed: 1) a lesbian woman who had her daughter through her partner's pregnancy, using ART with anonymous donor semen; 2) a gay man who, together with his partner, used a surrogacy service under contract via a specialised offshore agency; 3) a woman who was a surrogate, in Brazil, for her sister-in-law and brother who lived abroad and, from abroad, sent an embryo fertilised for surrogacy; 4) a woman who resorted to her sister-in-law in order to be a mother by surrogacy, with ovules from the woman herself fertilised with semen from her husband; and 5) the sister-in-law mentioned in 4), who acted as surrogate for her brother and his wife. These interviews made it possible to think about the discursive construction of the legitimacy of such parenthoods, as it is produced by access to, and manipulation and circulation of, reproductive technologies and persons. This biomedical management of bodies sets up a material and discursive circuit that, in turn, produces a complex web of personal, normative, legal, professional and market relationships, particularly with a view to construction of a parenthood anchored in a notion of biologically-constituted origin. In this respect, biological, affective and social bonds merge to produce a precise placement of who is the father and/or who is the mother, as well as who are the important others and how they are linked to the child in a broader web of parenthood.

From preventive eugenics to slippery eugenics: Population control and contemporary sterilisations targeted to indigenous peoples in Mexico.

Eugenic ideas in Mexico were popularised after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) as a way of 'modernising' and 'civilising' the nation. As a result, eugenic ideas were able to linger and be maintained through different departments, institutions, and individuals from all disciplines. After eugenics was considered a pseudoscience, its practices and ideas continued through population control measures that targeted indigenous populations for sterilisation, a trend that still prevails. The purpose of this article is to explore the legacies of eugenics in current sterilizations procedures mostly targeted at indigenous communities in Mexico. I offer the term 'slippery eugenics' to account for the legacies of eugenics in Mexico which, in this specific case, resurface in the systematic forced and coerced sterilisation procedures targeted at indigenous communities.

Morte e vida no debate sobre aborto: uma análise a partir da audiência pública sobre a ADPF 442 / Death and life in the abortion debate: an analysis based on the public hearing on ADPF 442

Resumo Partindo da premissa de que as pautas sobre direitos reprodutivos constituem uma gama de disputas políticas no campo da sexualidade e da reprodução, este artigo examina o debate travado na audiência pública sobre a Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental (ADPF) 442, ocorrida em agosto de 2018. A ação propõe a descriminalização do aborto induzido pela própria gestante ou com seu consentimento, até a 12ª. semana de gestação. Na audiência convocada pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal, 50 exposições de amici curiae foram realizadas, catalisando os atuais argumentos acionados no debate público sobre aborto no Brasil. O conteúdo da audiência pública (personagens, lugares, imagens, áudios, textos e vídeo) é tomado como material empírico desta pesquisa. Considerando a centralidade do argumento de defesa da vida/combate à morte, tanto nas exposições favoráveis quanto naquelas contrárias à ADPF, examinamos os distintos enquadramentos utilizados pelos atores políticos em cena, ao debater a problemática do aborto em termos de um embate entre morte e vida. Mais do que uma polissemia dos termos, trata-se de um embate que explicita hierarquias em relação à reprodução e à vida das mulheres.

Abstract Starting from the premise that the agenda on reproductive rights is home to political disputes in the field of sexuality and reproduction, this article reviews the debate held at the public hearing on the Argument of Noncompliance with a Fundamental Precept (Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental, ADPF) # 442 in August 2018. The lawsuit proposes the decriminalization of abortion induced by the pregnant woman herself or with her consent until the 12th week of gestation. At the hearing convened by the Supreme Court, 50 amicus curiae presentations were held, catalyzing the current arguments raised in the public debate on abortion in Brazil. The content of the public hearing (characters, places, images, audios, texts, and video) is taken as empirical material for this research. Considering the centrality of the defense of life/combating death argument, both in speeches for and against the ADPF, we examine the different frameworks used by political actors on the scene when debating the issue of abortion in terms of a clash between death and life. More than a polysemy, it is a clash that makes explicit hierarchies regarding reproduction and women's lives.

Promoting justice through community-based research: International case studies.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to promoting justice focus on working from the ground up and giving a voice to marginalized communities regarding their concerns, potential solutions, and how to address social justice issues that matter to them. The pursuit of justice is often related to efforts to attain personal as well as collective well-being. In this paper, we illustrate three exemplars of community psychologists' efforts to promote justice. Within each case study, we discuss the social and community context and examine how the researchers built partnerships and solidarity, developed ways of doing, and approached challenges and solutions. First, we present an example to promote economic justice through an entrepreneurship initiative developed in collaboration with young Black youth with disabilities in the United States. The second case illustrates an effort to promote reproductive justice in collaboration with Roma women and girls in Spain. The third exemplar depicts the use of life stories as a method to raise the voices of displaced, marginalized indigenous women in Peru. Based on these three case studies, we present a synthesis model of social justice. We also discuss implications for future studies emphasizing the importance of engaging community participants in research meaningful ways, developing sustainable partnerships, and decolonizing research.

Precarious Lives: Forced sterilisation and the struggle for reproductive justice in Peru.

It is estimated that more than 200,000 women were sterilised without giving free, prior and informed consent in Peru between 1996 and 2000 during the Fujimori regime. This paper places forced sterilisation within the frameworks of precarity and reproductive justice to understand policies that legitimised the violation of women's rights irrespective of the type of political regime: forced sterilisations during a dictatorial regime and denial of access to sexual and reproductive rights during a period of democracy. Through document analysis, this paper examines narratives around sterilisation and reproduction produced by policymakers, political and religious leaders and health care practitioners during these two political periods. This paper shows the continuity of the struggle that marginalised populations face in exercising their reproductive rights in the context of symbolic and structural inequalities.

"We can conceive another history": Trans activism around abortion rights in Argentina.

Background: A growing body of work focuses on transgender reproductive justice. However, little research has been undertaken on trans activists' contributions to reproductive justice movements in general, or to abortion rights movements in particular. Countries where trans identities are depathologized, such as Argentina, provide a unique opportunity to study challenges, achievements, and demands around reproductive justice for trans individuals in contexts where reproductive trans bodies are enabled to exist and may obtain legal gender recognition. Aims: To explore critical interventions by trans and travesti activists and organizations in Argentina around the issue of abortion rights. Methods: This paper analyses public speeches, publications, artwork, and flyers by trans and travesti activists and organizations in Argentina. Results: Trans contributions to abortion rights struggles have established common ground between trans and feminist/women's movements around reproductive justice, have negotiated the inclusion of trans masculine persons within the abortion rights movement (both as activists and as potential users of abortion services), and have pointed to the country's depathologized Gender Identity Law as a potential model for abortion regulations. Discussion: This paper concludes by discussing trans and travesti activists' contributions to framing abortion rights within a wider social and political agenda at the intersection between health, gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy, which furthers the work done by reproductive justice perspectives.

Reproductive injustice, trans rights, and eugenics.

This article explores how the recognition of the gender identity of trans people can have negative consequences on their reproductive health and rights. First, it argues that, while both the right to gender identity and the right to sexual and reproductive health are part of the indivisible core of human rights, in practice trans people are forced to choose between them. Understanding this scenario requires focusing on the eugenic dimensions of trans policies, even in states where the recognition of a gender identity other than that assigned at birth is not tied to surgical or hormonal compromises. The concept of "passive eugenics", coined over twenty years ago by James Bowman, offers a valuable key in this respect. Second, the paper highlights some factors that hinder a successful approach to the reproductive health and rights of trans people. These factors include: the normative imageries about the reproductive capacities and desires of trans people, representations about pregnancy and "womanhood", and the form taken by identity politics in contemporary feminist movements. The attention given as a priority (if not exclusively) to initiatives for the legalisation of voluntary abortion, understood as a right pertaining to (cis) women, offers a significant example of these difficulties. Finally, the paper advocates the adoption of a reproductive justice approach to work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, arguing that it has, among other virtues, that of challenging the binary matrix that characterises Western thought.

Pregnancy and Zika: The Quest for Quality Care and Reproductive Justice.

On February 1, 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the ZIKV virus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Pregnant women and their infants, are vulnerable to the impact of this vector-borne illness (mosquito) and sexually transmitted viral infection. The uncertainty surrounding the possibility of congenital anomalies due to ZIKV infection during pregnancy bring a renewed debate about the rights of women to control their reproductive decisions. Current strategies, resources and services aimed at prevention priorities fall short of responding to a clear framework regarding sexual reproductive health, rights and justice. A comprehensive approach to reproduction, in times of Zika, needs to empower women of reproductive age and their families to make decisions and to act on those decisions. This paper highlights the contributions of the Maternal-Infant Studies Center (CEMI-Spanish Acronym) in close collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the University of the Puerto Rico School of Medicine and the University Hospital in providing comprehensive health care to pregnant women with ZIKV or at risk of ZIKV, at the very onset of the epidemic. CEMI approaches the care of pregnant women from a reproductive justice perspective, integrating clinical services, education, research, and advocacy. Transformación Prenatal (Centering Group Prenatal Care, GPC) currently implemented at the Puerto Rico University Hospital High Risk Clinics has been pivotal to achieve this aim. Based on the health professionals' experiences and women's testimonies, we articulate a set of principles and key actions that would benefit women, their family and children.

Lawful Sinners: Reproductive Governance and Moral Agency Around Abortion in Mexico.

The Catholic Hierarchy unequivocally bans abortion, defining it as a mortal sin. In Mexico City, where the Catholic Church wields considerable political and popular power, abortion was recently decriminalized in a historic vote. Of the roughly 170,000 abortions that have been carried out in Mexico City's new public sector abortion program to date, more than 60% were among self-reported Catholic women. Drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork, including interviews with 34 Catholic patients, this article examines how Catholic women in Mexico City grapple with abortion decisions that contravene Church teachings in the context of recent abortion reform. Catholic women consistently leveraged the local cultural, economic, and legal context to morally justify their abortion decisions against church condemnation. I argue that Catholic women seeking abortion resist religious injunctions on their reproductive behavior by articulating and asserting their own moral agency grounded in the contextual dimensions of their lives. My analysis informs conversations in medical anthropology on moral decision-making around reproduction and on local dynamics of resistance to reproductive governance. Moreover, my findings speak to the deficiencies of a feminist vision focused narrowly on fertility limitation, versus an expanded framework of reproductive justice that considers as well the need for conditions of income equality and structural supports to facilitate reproduction and parenting among women who desire to keep their pregnancies.