By Zoe Audifferen

When people hear the term RJ, reproductive justice, they automatically think of sex, abortions, and women. Those people would not be completely wrong, but they wouldn’t be completely right either. Reproductive justice is an intersectional issue that extends far beyond sex and its counterparts: it intersects both reproductive and social justice alike. A person cannot begin to exercise their reproductive rights when their basic human rights have not been met due to an array of identities and in result, experiences that make up their life. In this article, we’ll look at two identities, LGBTQ+ people and incarcerated people, and how that affects their reproductive justice experience and rights.

Before we go any further though, let’s take a second to clearly define reproductive justice. The Forward Together organization defines reproductive justice as, “All people having the social, political, and economic power and resources to make healthy decisions about their gender, bodies, sexuality, and families for themselves and their communities.” Right off the bat from that definition, you see how it embodies everything from sexuality to economic status.

So how exactly does being a member of the LGBTQ+ community alter someone’s experience with reproductive justice? Dylan Chenault, a closeted gay man under an alias, and Georgia Tech student, opened up about his health care experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, “I am insured under my father and to this day, I have had to hide the fact that I am gay, making doctors appointments such a nerve-wracking thing to deal with,” he said. “I constantly feel like I have to censor what preventive treatment I am possibly interested in out of fear that it will be billed to my mailbox.” “Medicine that could proactively help protect my health, but require being billed to insurance, could end up getting me in a really tough situation.”

This is a distinct health care obstacle that is unique to Chenault, but not to closeted LGBTQ+ members as a whole. This particular identity must be taken into consideration when dealing with members of this community in order to allow them better agency of their gender, bodies, and sexuality. So while members of the LGBTQ+ community might have the option of receiving preventive care, it is the realistic ability to access it that must also be available. This is the very concept of reproductive “rights” versus reproductive ‘justice’- option versus access.

“Reproductive rights don’t always work towards the big picture of the healthcare fight,” said Eshe Shukura, Georgia State URGE (Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity) organizer, in an interview. “Reproductive justice is concerned with how rights are received by all people especially marginalized communities,” she elaborated.
Some of the most marginalized people in the United States are incarcerated people, whether it be in a prison or in an ICE-detainment facility. They experience a very unique set of reproductive rights.

Since December of last year, ICE has detained more than 500 pregnant women. Reports of miscarriages are increasing, lack of proper medical attention and poorly regulated facilities are becoming far too common. Reports released by the Human Rights Watch found that ICE policies unduly deprive women of basic health services. The reports speak of women who were refused hormonal contraceptives including some who dealt with inflamed ovaries and excruciatingly heavy periods, after the facility refused the women their previously prescribed birth control pills.

Back in July of 2016,  Shadé Swayzer went into labor in a Milwaukee jail cell. Jail staff ignored and laughed at all her requests for medical attention, despite her informing them that her water had broken. Swayzer went into labor around midnight and gave birth by 4 a.m. but did not receive any medical attention until 6 a.m., several hours after her initial request for medical attention. She lost her child later that day.

This is the reality of the obstacles incarcerated people face when it comes to their reproductive rights and justice. The nonprofit organization, If/When/How found that out of the women in state prisons who reported being pregnant at admission, 94% reported having an obstetric exam, but only 54% reported receiving any type of pregnancy care. Women in prison are at high risk for STIs, HIV, and unintended pregnancies. This is the truth that lies behind being an incarcerated women in the United States.

The same ICE facilities that detained over 500 pregnant women previously had a policy that stated, “absent extraordinary circumstances or the requirement of mandatory detention, pregnant women will generally not be detained by ICE.” While the reality was supposed to be reproductive rights that provided options for these women, it is clear the accessibility of those options were not fairly in reach or mandated within the facility. That is where reproductive justice steps in to bridge the gap.

Even when explaining the reality of incarcerated people and LGBTQ+ people one can see the intersectionality of those two identities and how it creates another experience unique to that identity.  

Incarcerated transgender or transsexual people are a perfect example of an intersectional identity. A California study found that transgender people were 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than non-transgender people in prison. Self-castration, suicide, and waves of desperation are byproducts of the denial of sex hormones to inmates yearning to switch genders, advocates say, especially for those who are going through withdrawals from previously taking estrogen to transform from male to female.

So, if we were to have an honest conversation about reproductive justice without acknowledging the individual identities that curate individualistic reproductive experiences we would be doing a disservice to the true mission of reproductive justice. It is time we stop looking at reproductive justice through a single lens in order to fully embrace and create accessibility for people of various backgrounds by acknowledging the reality of those identities and the obstacles they bring.