This month, we’ll learn about a menstrual health topic from a recent GNWL intern. Please join us in congratulating Saylor Mealing (intern Fall ‘25), who recently graduated with her Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH), from Texas A&M University. Her dissertation focused on the impact of past reproductive injustices on the current reproductive health decisions of African American women. She will be continuing research on research on women’s health topics. ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Throughout history, there have been many movements to ensure that people have access to the resources they need. One of these movements includes the reproductive justice movement. Reproductive justice* is defined as a combination of two important women’s rights.
- The first right is “to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children/not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.”
- The second right is “the human right to control our sexuality, our gender, our work, and our reproduction.”
These rights can only be achieved when all women and girls have complete economic, social, and political power, and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, our families, and our communities in all areas of our lives.”* The girls we work with in Burkina Faso do not have all these rights due to poverty, war, and lack of hygienic facilities.
Reproductive justice goes beyond just the basics of health, it touches many aspects of a girl’s life. We have to take into account issues like marriage before a girl is emotionally mature enough, access to contraception, prenatal care, comprehensive sexual and reproductive education for girls and boys, power systems that keep women focused on childrearing, neighborhood safety, and environmental justice.
Each of these topics impacts a girl’s ability to grow up making her own decision about reproduction. Some examples from history that have led to the reproductive justice movement include experimentation on enslaved women, predatory contraception programs, forced child marriage, and forced sterilizations. We must never forget how much we’ve overcome.
As part of the reproductive justice movement, GNWL and other organizations seek to ensure that all girls have access to the resources needed to maintain their reproductive health (pads, soap, clean underwear, pain relievers), and information.
Knowledge is a crucial part of our mission. We teach the girls about changes happening in their body, what normal menstruation looks like, what is pregnancy, partner violence, and how to feel proud of their period. It should not be a privilege to know these things, it should be right. We also help girls with their
education, talking about how to manage your period so you don’t need to be absent from school. For us, a period isn’t an end, it’s just the beginning.
We live in a world where a lack of access to reproductive care, menstrual products, contraception, and education happen in the most educated countries. Healthcare is expensive; period products are costly and often taxed. So, now that we’ve identified the scope of reproductive justice and the issues it addresses, what do we do next?
Next Steps for Reproductive Justice
Evidence proves that expanding access to the above resources betters the lives of those who receive them, others around them, and future generations. So, we go onward and upward; we support organizations that provide these resources and improve lives. Too often, reproductive justice is politicized and seen as a movement that focuses on abortion, when in actuality, reproductive justice is so much more. It’s a movement that can improve the health and happiness of families for generations to come. Reproductive justice is a movement that benefits all of us. An educated girl can control her own future, and change the world.
— Saylor Mealing, DrPH
References
* Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Reproductive Justice. Sister Song. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://www.sistersong.net/reproductive-justice