Reproductive Justice: Inequalities in the Global South

In this special issue on Reproductive Justice: Inequalities in the Global South we hope to promote academic discussions that shift the focus towards a plurality of global South perspectives on issues related to reproductive justice (RJ). The goal is at least two-fold: to promote a space for counterhegemonic analyses and to expand the dialogue on reproductive justice. This special issue covers a wide range of themes and research questions, as well as a diverse participation of scholars working in the intersection between bioethics, reproduction, healthcare, pandemics and epidemics, and public policy. We hope that the concept of reproductive justice, itself, will continue to promote academic and activist conversations and debates that de-normalize and de-naturalize hegemonic power structures and practices in science, healthcare and academia. It is in that spirit that the papers in this special issue contribute, in one way or another, to the task of asking questions from counterhegemonic, anti-racist and feminist perspectives.

The concept of reproductive justice is known to have been coined in 1994 by a group of black women and women of color in Chicago as they prepared for the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo.1 As bioethicists from the global South, we would like to draw attention that other black women led movements around the same time that were happening elsewhere (in Brazil, for instance) and invite all to wonder about how knowledge is produced and promoted and how ideas coalesce in different ways depending on the circumstances.

In August 1993, also in preparation for the Cairo conference, a group of Brazilian black women convened for the National Seminar on Politics and Reproductive Rights of Black Women [English translation].2 This meeting resulted in the “Declaração de Itapecirica da Serra das Mulheres Negras Brasileiras”,3 - in English, the “Declaration of Itapecerica da Serra of Black Brazilian Women”.4 At this meeting they stated that: ““We, black women, consider that the State has the task of guaranteeing the necessary conditions so that Brazilians, women, and in particular black Brazilian women, can exercise their sexuality and their reproductive rights, controlling their own fertility, to have or not to have the children they want, guaranteeing access to good quality health services, care for pregnancy, childbirth and abortion.” [English translation].5 They also made it clear that “The guarantee of reproductive rights presupposes the guarantee of broad citizenship rights…” [English translation]6 which included employment, housing, education and safety, ethical and interdisciplinary education and training for healthcare providers, and democratization on information access among other public policy demands.

As we rarely hear, or do not hear at all, about how Brazilian black women might have, or not, contributed to the concept of reproductive justice, this declaration, its timing and content makes us reflect on the importance epistemic justice regarding the geopolitics of knowledge production, the global circulation of ideas and the multiplicity of obstacles women, particularly racialized women, in the global South encounter as epistemic subjects. We, as guest editors of this special issue, and as feminist bioethicists, hope to promote a reading of these debates through an intersectional lens.7 This declaration is a relevant indication of how experiences of oppression create commonalities and shared desires of emancipation. Hegemonic powers work to disrupt the possibility of a collective understanding, community formation and action. We do not know how many other groups or people have come up with similar ideas and concepts, in different locations and time, but this should certainly make us think critically about the need to create spaces for epistemic reparations and to promote practices of epistemic justice in bioethics.8

It has been more than 40 years since Audre Lorde exposed the arrogance to assume that any significant change could come from analysis and discussions that exclude “…poor women, Black and Third World women, and lesbians.”9 In 1993, this organized group of Brazilian black women raised the need of ethical approaches to healthcare that included their perspectives and particularities. They also emphasized that in order to overcome reproductive injustice, black women's participation in the universities and knowledge production was indispensable.10 The Brazilian black womens’ movement along with the RJ movement in the USA, marked the essentiality of inclusion of their experiences when formulating public policy and thinking about health and justice. Inspired by and learning from these marginalized, racialized women, we invite scholars, practitioners and activists to read this special issue. Convinced that reproductive justice has and should continue to provoke reflections that pays close attention to the structures and distribution of power; placing at the center of discussions and ensuring space and power to those who have been historically excluded. Our purpose is to stimulate ethical discussions in a way that promotes inquisitive dialogues and challenges hegemonic frameworks which instead of nurturing often suffocate critical thinking. In this special issue the reader will find different methodological and theoretical approaches to issues that include, among others, the analysis of abortion access in the context of the pandemic, research ethics during epidemics, the global political strategies for criminalizing abortion, assisted reproduction technologies and kinship, surrogacy and autonomy, and the intersection between obstetric violence and immigration status.

Thirty years after the explicit alerts and demands made by these impressive women in Brazil and the USA, it is still difficult to center ethical discussions and research related to reproductive issues in a way that respond to the context and particular experiences of racialized, excluded and oppressed women, LGBTQIAP+ people, and people with disabilities, particularly in the global South. Even more worrisome, the fight for reproductive justice is now encountering new and more menacing threats. The 2022 Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court of the United States serves as an example of the powerful reactionary forces organized with the objective to make reproductive justice impossible to achieve. Therefore, we call for bioethicists across the world to prioritize intervention and research in reproductive justice, strengthening dialogue and collaborative work across disciplines and locations.

Finally, we thank the co-editors of Developing World Bioethics for the opportunity to put together this special issue, in an effort to maintain the attention on reproductive justice issues that are, if not more, at least as relevant today as they were three decades ago.

None to declare.