1) What are the main ideas and/or issues of the article as it relates to the chosen topic?
Bridgewater (2009) argues that an understanding of reproductive justice and the implications of its regulations in the U.S requires more than just a deep understanding of the laws that govern reproductive rights but also a very good understanding of the story of slavery. Slavery experiences of reproductive oppression, especially towards the Women of Color in the U.S, have fueled the movement for reproductive rights. The lack of freedom to reproductive rights and decisions has subjected the Women of Color to racism and sexism, creating stereotyped minds that they cannot be in control of their reproductive bodies. Bridgewater’s methodology was to use the act of storytelling about experiences of victims of reproductive injustice to reinforce the efforts of Women of Color in advocating for justice to their reproductive rights. The author believes that relating these stories and experiences will put them in context of the law, thereby also helping to address issues of race or sex discrimination. For example, Bridgewater (2009) talked about three illiterate black poor women who were not given proper care because of their status as slaves.
2) Based on the reading from your textbook, what makes these ideas and/or issues so important to understand?
According to Silliman et al. (2004), Women of Color in the U.S negotiate their rights under a system that combines various interlocking forms of oppressions. Some of the different forms of oppression as highlighted by Silliman et al. (2004) are poverty, racism, environmental degradation and injustice in the United States. These oppressing factors restrain Women of Color from exercising their r...
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...roductive rights to choose when and how many children they choose to have. Some of the recorded deaths were also due to limited choices of reliable means of abortion due to poverty. Just as everyone in the society, the Women of Color also deserve freedom to reproductive rights to choose either to keep a pregnancy or have an abortion because it shapes her reproductive choices and right as a woman. The Women of Color have directed efforts towards removing racial stereotypes and dealing with government policies that undermine reproductive right.
Works Cited
Pamela, Bridgewater. “Legal Stories and the Promise of Problematizing Reproductive Rights.” Law and Literature. 21.3 (2009): 402-414. Print.
Silliman et al. “Women of Color and their Struggle for Reproductive Justice.” Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions. Ed. Shaw and Lee’s. McGraw-Hill, 2013. 340-345
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In Beggars and Choosers, Rickie Solinger discusses the era of “choice.” He analyzes how reproductive choices of poor women, especially those of color, were strikingly disimilar to the choices of middle class, white women. Solinger’s illustrations emplify how society should not base reproductive rights on class and
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What are the major points of the article and why do you think they are main
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“The Rights of Pregnant Women.” NARAL Pro-Choice America. 24 March 2004. <http://www.naral.org/Issues/pregnantwomen/> {unrestricted; internet publication}