Reproductive Justice Workshop
Goals:
1. To discuss oppression of women by men over the centuries, focusing on reproduction
rights and freedoms (lack of)
2. To understand what factors impact a real choice to reproduce or not, reproductive justice,
for women of color
3. To appreciate struggles, resistance, victories and lessons from long line of women’s
rights activism
Agenda [80 min]:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduction & Ice-breaker [15 mins]
Small group discussions & poster-making [30 mins]
Reproductive Justice Timeline [30 mins]
Evaluation [5 mins]
Supplies Needed:
1. Butcher paper, markers, poster board, colored paper, glue sticks, post-it notes, tape
2. Discussion Questions for Small Groups – Handout 1
3. Timeline Slips, Timeline Dates
Visuals Needed:
1. Workshop Agenda & Goals
2. Timeline of Major Dates on theWall
1. Introduction & Ice-Breaker [15 min]
A. Introduction
 This workshop discusses the control men have had and want to maintain on women,
specifically on their rights to reproduce or not and whether women of color have had or
have a real choice to procreate in a healthy, well-being environment.
B. Ice-Breaker
 Give each participant a post-it note. Have each person decide their answer to the
following question: Do you think men have more power in society
YES
than women?
 If they say, yes, have them write an example of this from their own
experience on the post-it note.
 If they say no, have them write why they think men don't have
more power than women.
 Have each participant place their post-it notes on a butcher paper in
the front of the room, with all the "YES" answers on one side of the
paper and the "NO" answers on the other side.
NO

Close ice-breaker by reviewing examples. Explain that most of us have lived in societies
for centuries where men have had more power and benefited at the expense of women.
C. Review Agenda & Goals
2. Small Group Discussion & Poster-Making [30 min]
A. Break group into five groups (depending on total number of participants.) Ask each group to
discuss one of the following statements. Ask each group to use poster board, markers,
colored paper, and glue sticks to design a poster that shows what the statement means to
them in 10 minutes. Let them know that they will have 2 minutes to report back to the whole
group. Distribute Handout 1.
B. Have each group come up and present their statement and poster. Recap main points
discussed. Explain that next part of the discussion involves key points in history that support
the statements just explained.
3. Reproductive Justice Timeline [30 min]
A. Give out the 10 timeline slips to different participants.
B. Review the timeline in chronological order by asking participants to come up and
present/explain the event they have and place it on the timeline.
C. Discussion questions:
 How did laws, policies and practices around reproduction affect the self-determination of
communities of color?
 How did these policies and practices affect the health of women of color in particular?
 What are some modern-day examples similar to these historical examples of how the
health of our communities is in danger? (e.g. war/militarism, pollution, lack of access to
health care, etc.)? What do you think of these problems?
 How do you think women’s health is affected by these real life examples? How are
women and men affected differently by these problems?
D. Summary points
 The issue of ‘choice’ or ‘reproductive freedom’ is not just about abortion, but about a
woman (and by extension her family) having the freedom to decide what happens to her
body and her life, whether than means she wants to have children or not, how many
children she wants to have, etc. Every one of us has the right to not have her body
changed (sterilized) against her will, and all of us should have access to information
about sex, birth control, etc. so that we can make the choices that are best for us.

Throughout history, and even today, many of the same people (right wingers,
Republicans, conservative folks) that want to limit a woman’s right to have an abortion
also think gay people are evil, working hard to limit sex education for young people, to
encourage young people to abstain from sex. They want to keep information from young
people to control them (parental notification is only one part of this control).
4. Evaluation [5 mins]
A. Go around:
 What is something that you learned?
 What did you like?
 What can be changed?
Small Group Discussion
Statement 1
For most of human existence and in most
societies, women have been considered to be
property and subject to men.
Instructions:
 Read the statement. What is it saying? Do you agree?
 Can you think of examples of how women have been, and at times still are,
considered to be property and subject to men? Why do you think that is?
 Use poster board to draw or describe your answers. Prepare to report back to
the entire group.
Small Group Discussion
Statement 2
The ability of women to control what happens to
our bodies is constantly challenged by poverty,
racism, environmental degradation, sexism, and
homophobia in the US.
Instructions:
 Read the statement. What is it saying?
 Can you break down the following terms: poverty, racism, environmental
degradation, sexism, and homophobia?
 Do you agree that these factors impact the ability of women to control what
happens to our bodies? How? Can you think of examples?
 Use the poster board to draw or describe your answers. Prepare to report
back to the entire group.
Small Group Discussion
Statement 3
The emotional, sexual, and psychological
stereotyping of females begins when the doctor
says, "It's a girl."
(From Shirley Chisholm, first African American woman elected to Congress)
Instructions:
 Read the statement. What is it saying?
 Can you break down the following terms: emotional, sexual, psychological,
and stereotyping?
 Do you agree that females face stereotyping from the day they are born?
How? Can you think of examples?
 Use the poster board to draw or describe your answers. Prepare to report
back to the entire group.
Small Group Discussion
Statement 4
All females are socialized by sexist thinking to
believe that our value rests solely on our
appearance and whether or not we are perceived
to be good looking, especially by men.
(Adapted from bell hooks, Black feminist educator and activist)
Instructions:
 Read the statement. What is it saying?
 Can you break down the following terms: socialized by sexist thinking?
 Do you agree that females are taught to believe their value is based on their
looks and what men think of them? How? Can you think of examples?
 Use the poster board to draw or describe your answers. Prepare to report
back to the entire group.
Small Group Discussion
Statement 5
The only real unity between men and women is
the unity forged in the course of struggle against
their oppression. And it is by supporting, rather
than opposing, the struggles of women, that men
and women can genuinely unite.
(Adapted from Mirta Vidal, Chicana feminist activist)
Instructions:
 Read the statement. What is it saying?
 Can you break down the following terms: oppression, unity, and struggle?
 Do you agree that in order for men and women to unite, men must support
the struggles of women? Why? Can you think of examples?
Use the poster board to draw or describe your answers. Prepare to report back to the entire group.
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PREHISTORY: Among gatherers and hunters and other
early societies, various methods existed to limit the numbers
of births and children. Women in many societies used
various plants and herbs as contraceptives or to induce
abortions. (Bororo women in Brazil used a plant to make
them sterile. Women in Egypt used a vaginal sponge, dipped
in honey, to reduce the mobility of sperm.)
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1800's: Slave women used
African folk knowledge about
contraception and abortion as
forms of resistance to prevent
slave owners from profiting
and selling their offspring.
1873: Dr. Edward Hammond Clarke
publishes his influential
Sex in Education, which
argues that education is
harmful to women
because mental activity
draws blood from the
reproductive organs.
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1882: Chinese Exclusion Act is the first law to
exclude a specific ethnicity from immigrating to
the US. During this
period very few
women were allowed
into the country and
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tricked, kidnapped or
smuggled came to the
US.
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1930's: During this period,
the US created populations
control programs –
sterilizations in Puerto Rico
and in the US targeting
Native Americans and
African American women.
Most were performed
without full consent.
1955: Rosa Parks' arrest for
refusing to give up her seat on a
bus to a white man sparks the
Montgomery, Alabama Bus
Boycott. African American
women, the systems’ main
users, will support the boycott
for more than a year.
1970: Labor
organizer Dolores
Huerta becomes
vice president of the
United Farm
Workers.
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1973: The US Supreme
Court rules in Roe v.
Wade that a woman
has a constitutional
right to abortion.
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1980s-1990s: During this
period Asian / Pacific
Islander women formed
organizations to address
their specific
reproductive health
issues. At the same time,
Latinas across the
country formed
organizations to address
specific Latino health
issues.
1989: In Webster v. Reproductive
Health Services, the
US Supreme Court
upholds laws
limiting a woman’s
right to abortion.
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