Reproductive Justice by Loretta Ross

Author:Loretta Ross
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520288188
Publisher: University of California Press

IS MOTHERHOOD A HUMAN RIGHT?

As we have explained before, one of the key powerful ideas giving life to reproductive justice is that no right can achieve the status of a human right if it doesn’t apply to all people—along with its corollary that no right is secure if it is not secure for everybody. Reproductive justice activists believe that motherhood is a human right. Articles 16 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights state this clearly:

Article 16: Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.

Article 25: (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.25

Despite these international norms, politicians and policy makers in the United States have not viewed motherhood as a human right that must be supported as a priority for the benefit of the entire society. Even if we think only in purely economic and not humane terms, we have to acknowledge that all countries in the developed world are currently experiencing declines in working-age population, and by 2050, this segment of the population will be reduced by 5 percent.26 Employers will have more difficulty finding both the workers and the customers that capitalism depends on for expansion. If developed countries were to increase the number of immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia allowed to settle within their borders, that decision could replenish shrinking populations. But in almost every developed country, anti-immigrant sentiment is strong. In the United States, many Republican politicians have stoked anti-immigrant sentiment so successfully that a significant part of the American public is hostile to the whole notion of immigration,27 even though granting entry to persons from the Global South may be one of the few viable routes to population stability.28 Of course the other viable route to population stability is to provide more generous supports for motherhood, another politically unpopular policy option in the United States.29

Many studies show that women seek abortions because of the continually diminishing public support for keeping a pregnancy: for example, loss of or insufficient support for maternity leave, day care, housing, employment, protection from job discrimination, and programs and protections against domestic violence.30 Reproductive justice proponents point out the connection between supports for motherhood and improvements in general economic forecasts, justifying the claim that reproductive justice is not only the right perspective, it’s the smart perspective.31

Monica Raye Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, argues that women of color are not simply lacking the resources they need to exercise their right to be mothers, but they are often lacking essential fundamentals.

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