Episode 22: Loretta Ross on Race, Reproductive Justice and Movement Building in an Age of Backlash

On this week’s episode, Tim speaks with Loretta Ross, one of the nation’s leading scholars and activists in the movement for reproductive justice. She was the co-founder and National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005-2012, a network founded in 1997 by women of color specifically to organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement. Ms. Ross was the Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia and launched the Women of Color Program for the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the 1980s.She is the author or co-author of several books including her two latest: Reproductive Justice: An Introduction, which she co-authored with Rickie Solinger, and Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practices and Critique.On the show today, Loretta and Tim will discuss the meaning of reproductive justice and how it seeks to expand the traditional concept of reproductive freedom beyond mere issues of abortion access and typical pro-choice/pro-life divides. They’ll discuss how reproductive self-determination connects to issues of racial inequity, comprehensive health care access, and education, and how without an intersectional framework linking these things, the entire concept of reproductive freedom and choice mean very little for women, including those women who choose to carry a pregnancy to term. Ross and Wise also explore the opportunities for cross-racial alliances in the age of Trump, why it’s important to engage whites around issues of white supremacy, and how movements for social justice can ultimately do that.