Taking Action for Reproductive Justice: Our Favorite Tools, Resources, and Data


With the historic 50-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade (January 22, 2023) around the corner and basic reproductive rights deeply entrenched in politicized debate across the U.S., reproductive justice has again taken center stage.

Reproductive justice—a framework developed by Women of Color in the 1990s—combines reproductive rights with social justice and lifts up the marginalized individuals, families, and communities excluded by the early reproductive rights movement. It includes the rights to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent children in safe, accessible, healthy, sustainable communities. Reproductive justice is achieved when marginalized people—especially women, girls, and people who are LGBTQ+, disabled, low-income, undocumented, and/or of color—are able to freely and equitably exercise these rights.

In practice, reproductive justice involves explicitly naming and addressing the United States’ long legacies of reproductive abuses, and advancing reproductive rights and health from an intersectional, whole-person, community-centered perspective. Because reproductive control is a gateway to controlling entire populations, reproductive justice is key to dismantling hierarchies of inequity, wealth, and power. With this end goal in mind, movement-building for reproductive justice must always acknowledge, collaborate with, and advance justice movements for all marginalized people and our shared environment and communities.


This collection focuses specifically on taking action. It houses some of our favorite tools, toolkits, resources, datasets, maps, policy briefs, and stories related to reproductive justice, reproductive rights, maternal health, and key intersectional topics.


Because reproductive justice is so broad, action can take many forms. Key actions to start with include: 

      • Advocating for reproductive rights, including access to contraception, birth control, and pregnancy termination 

        • Eliminating disparities in prenatal, childbirth, and postpartum care, especially for Black women, birthing people, and infants 

          • Improving healthcare for families, infants, and children 

            • Addressing the United States’ long history of forced and coerced sterilization—including BIPOC, Puerto Rican, low-income, disabled, transgender, and intersex people—and the ongoing impacts these legacies have on marginalized communities today 

              • Banning modern coerced and nonconsensual sterilization practices for people who are disabled, incarcerated, and/or detained im/migrants 

                • Combatting ageist and sexist biases about "preserving fertility" to allow for consensual, informed sterilization 

                  • Advocating for all states to accept transgender and nonbinary peoples' identification document updates without proof of surgeries, which often involve sterilization 

                    • Ending involuntary, medically unnecessary gender reassignment and sterilization surgeries of intersex infants and children 

                        • Expanding culturally competent, gender-affirming healthcare and mental healthcare for LGBTQ+ people of all ages 

                          • Ending domestic, intimate partner, sexual, and child abuse 

                              • Ensuring disabled people's right to exist without fear of erasure through eugenics, gene editing, and/or sterilization 

                              Please reach out with any suggested actions, resources, stories, or tools you think should be included here. We are committed to advancing reproductive justice and would love to hear from you.


                              About Reproductive Justice and Health

                              Photo of a pregnant parent with dark skin and curly natural hair smiling at their young child. A teal banner spanning the top of the image reads
                              Reproductive Justice
                              Topic - Quality Of Life


                              Reproductive Justice Tools, Data, and Maps

                              Cover page of Reproductive and Child Health Data Report – January 2020
                              Reproductive and Child Health Data Report
                              Resource - Report
                              Brought to you by North Sound ACH
                              Screen grab of Maternal and Child Health Digital Library
                              Maternal and Child Health Digital Library
                              Resource - Data Bank/repository
                              Brought to you by HHS Health Resources and Services Administration
                              Screen shot of Data Center cover page: Guttmacer Institute Data Center
                              Guttmacher Institute Data Center
                              Tool - Data/mapping Tool
                              Screen shot of tool map: Reproductive Rights
                              Reproductive Rights
                              Tool - Data/mapping Tool
                              Screen capture of Snapshot: LGBTQ Equality by State webpage
                              Snapshot: LGBTQ Equality by State
                              Tool - Data/mapping Tool
                              Screen shot of highlights section: Reproductive Health
                              Reproductive Health
                              Resource - Data Bank/repository
                              Brought to you by CMS
                              Screen shot of tool map: What if Roe Fell?
                              What If Roe Fell?
                              Tool - Data/mapping Tool
                              Brought to you by Center for Reproductive Rights


                              Reproductive Justice Voices and Stories

                              Screen shot of cover of story: The Racist History of Abortion and Midwifery Bans
                              The Racist History of Abortion and Midwifery Bans
                              Story - Written
                              Brought to you by ACLU
                              Screen shot of Please Don't Edit Me Out article
                              Please Don’t Edit Me Out
                              Story - Written
                              Brought to you by WaPo
                              PDF Cover: Queer Reproductive Justice
                              Queer Reproductive Justice?
                              Resource - Journal Article
                              Brought to you by Elsevier, Inc.
                              Photo of a distressed young person, presumably a teenager, looking at a positive pregnancy test
                              Teen Pregnancy in New Mexico
                              Story - Original
                              Brought to you by Community Commons
                              Published on 03/01/2017
                              Picture of a Black mother playing with her child
                              Bearing the Burden: How racism-related stress hurts America’s black mothers and babies
                              Story - Original
                              Brought to you by Community Commons
                              Published on 10/02/2018
                              Screen Capture of Story Image: If Only Everyone Had a Postpartum Doula
                              If Only Everyone Had a Postpartum Doula
                              Story - Written
                              Brought to you by NYT


                              Reproductive Justice Research and Policies

                              PDF Article Cover: Provider Bias In Contraceptive Counseling
                              Provider Bias in Contraceptive Counseling
                              Resource - Journal Article
                              PDF Cover: My Body, Whose Choice? A Call to Advance Reproductive Justice in Pediatric Training
                              “My Body, Whose Choice?” A Call to Advance Reproductive Justice in Pediatric Training
                              Resource - Journal Article
                              Brought to you by American Academy of Pediatrics
                              PDF Cover: Forced Sterilization of Disabled People in the United States
                              Forced Sterilization of Disabled People in the United States
                              Resource - Report
                              Brought to you by National Women's Law Center
                              PDF Cover Page: Financial Instability and Delays in Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Due to Covid-19
                              Financial Instability and Delays in Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Due to COVID-19
                              Resource - Journal Article
                              Brought to you by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
                              PDF Cover Page: Cross-State Travel For Abortion Care
                              Cross-State Travel for Abortion Care
                              Resource - Journal Article
                              Brought to you by Elsevier, Inc.
                              Screen shot of blog photo: Reproductive Justice: Voices Not Just Choices
                              Reproductive Justice: Voices Not Just Choices
                              Resource - Blog
                              Brought to you by University of Alabama at Birmingham
                              Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC)
                              Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC)
                              Resource - Website/webpage
                              Brought to you by ACOG
                              First page of An Unconditional Prenatal Income Supplement Reduces Population Inequities In Birth Outcomes
                              An Unconditional Prenatal Income Supplement Reduces Population Inequities In Birth Outcomes
                              Resource - Journal Article
                              Brought to you by Health Affairs

                               Related Topics


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                              Reproductive Justice

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                              Transgender and Nonbinary People

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                              Racial Justice

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                              Sexual and Reproductive Health