Reproductive Justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.
(SisterSong)
Interdisciplinary Symposium on Reproductive Justice:
Perspectives from Law, Religion, Business and Culture
April 4-5, 2019
Crum Auditorium, Collins Executive Education Center
3150 Binkley Avenue, Dallas, TX 75275
RSVP at https://reproductivejusticesymposium.eventbrite.com
Lunch: Boxed lunch will be provided for attendees that register before April 1, 2019. Please note dietary restrictions to RJ-symposium@smu.edu
Click here to see a complete tentative schedule
All attendees must register for each day of the symposium separately. Guests who are attending both days will have 2 tickets - one for Thursday and one for Friday
The concept of reproductive rights has long been a cornerstone of feminist activism and feminist discourse. In the early twenty-first century, women of color emended this concept, replacing the question of rights with that of justice. They were led to do so by their experiences with a health care system that made questions of the right to choose birth control and abortion only part of the constraints upon choice that they face. Others have included forced sterilization, reduced access to affordable health care, higher rates of maternal mortality, and unequal expectations about motherhood and paid work.
Even middle-class women who are covered by insurance contend with constrained access to contraception and abortion, alarming rates of C-sections, the various ways that newly enforced laws give priority to fetal health over that of the pregnant woman, and an economy in which most women do not have access to paid maternity leave. Access to sexual and reproductive health care has been compromised for many women in recent years by the increased reliance on religious exemptions. The problems faced by women of reproductive age proliferate when global forces are added into the mix: NGOs are hampered in their ability to provide reproductive healthcare by the “global gag” rule, and the reproductive choices of immigrant women have been sharply curtailed.
Our symposium looks beyond the entrenched pro-choice/pro-life binary to explore a larger range of issues affecting women of reproductive age--and their families--in the twenty-first century. It will bring together scholars, advocates, and practitioners for an interdisciplinary discussion of these important issues.
This symposium is co-sponsored by the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, the Dedman School of Law, the Perkins School of Theology, and the Women's and Gender Studies Program in SMU's Dedman College. The program includes: