"Many White reproductive activists cannot relate to the experiences of Black women. They have never had to fight for the right to be mothers, or fight for the right to keep their children off the auction block. Unless the reproduction of a woman of colour is directly sanctioned by Whiteness, it is deemed an irresponsible act. Such language continues to occur in discussions of so-called third world Brown and Black women. Mommy continues to be defined as White, middle/upper class, able bodied, straight, soccer mom in a mini van. Undocumented workers are routinely accused of having anchor babies to secure citizenship, but when this is played out in the media, they most certainly aren’t referring to the undocumented workers from countries that are considered White. They mean the dangerous Brown and Black wombs reproducing at will. Women of colour are construed as a project in need of being saved, as long as the process does not mean truly acknowledging the role that race and class have played in our continuing oppression. Innovations like the pill and Depo Provera, that have been touted as life saving, and important to the advancement of women’s rights, were tested on women of colour, long before they entered the precious bloodstreams of White women. Yet, this history is erased to praise the ability of women to control their reproductive process. Once again, advancement for women was carried on the backs of women of colour. Even as I am writing this, I wonder how many blogs dedicated to reproductive justice have ignored this story and its historical significance, because it would mean confronting the horrible truth that reproductive justice is about far more than access to birth control, the right to have an abortion and supporting Planned Parenthood; its about validating the idea that women, and by women I mean women of colour, have paid the brunt of the cost in terms of violation due to the intersection or racism and sexism."

"People who care about the humanity of women must boldly challenge the anti-scientific assumptions and anti-women morality that prevails throughout the debate over women’s right to abortion with clarity: not by seeking common ground with the movement that seeks nothing less than the submission of women to men. At a time when the country is fighting multiple unjust wars and during a time of great political and economic instability, racist tea-baggers should not be the only ones in the streets right now. We will discuss how the efforts to stand up for abortion rights interacts with our work to reverse the “Bush doctrine” of aggressive, torture, and indefinite detention, and the fascist direction of U.S. society associated with the Christian fundamentalists and the neo-cons. This presentation will include showing a video clip from “Abortion, Morality, and the Liberation of Women,” which we use in high school and college classes. We argue that “abortion is not murder; fetuses are not babies, and women are not incubators” and that confining our protest to what the Democratic Party accepts will just lead us further and further away from a world where women themselves can truly and freely decide when and whether to bear children."