Reproductive Rights are Human Rights
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Reproductive Rights are Human Rights
By Carly Klenklen
This presentation will cover the issue of reproductive justice, a social workers role in the issue, theoretical framework and strategies to interevene with the issue, and macro level practices to combat the issue at large.
Reproductive Justice
On 06/24/2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the decision of Roe V Wade allowing individual states to make their own laws regarding reproductive rights including but not limited to the restriction of access to abortion and reproductive health care (NASW, 2022).
This social worker is interested in the topic of reproductive rights being human rights because reproductive rights are human rights.
Interest in the issue
Effects
Access to legal abortion has steadily declined. As of 2018, 87% of countries had no abortion access. National legislation limits late-term abortions even in the event that the woman's life is endangered. Some states in US have considered criminalizng women who have experienced miscarriage and stillbirth.
Additionally, Planned Parenthood lost Title X funding because of new federal regulation that prohibit abortion referrals. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of low income women losing access to health services (Hyde, 2013).
Forced Sterilization
Reproductive justice tends to be reduced to "abortion-centric framework" creating the debate of pro-life versus pro-choice. however there is more to reproductive justice (Liddell, 2018). Forced sterifilztion has been used on those seen as "unfit" to reproduce (Gomez. 2020). Throughout history certain minorities and vulnerable populations have been targeted and forced to receive sterilizing procedures in order to not reproduce. In 1965, Black women made up 65% of sterilization procedures yet only made up 25% of the population at whole. In the 1960s-70s during the original movement that sparked Roe V Wade, nearly 25% of Indigenous women were sterilized by Inidian Health Services. Individuals with intellectual and mental disabilities were also targeted and forced to be sterilized as they were not "fit to be parents" (Manjeshwar, 2020).
Mother Maternal Health
Currently, the US has the highest rate of mother mortality. Rates are also high of adverse infant and maternal health outcomes. These negative outcomes affect Black and Indigenous women and their infants at disproprionate rate (Gomez, 2020).
Social Worker's Roles
A social worker has many roles regarding reproduction justice including destigmatizing and supporting our clients and community members seeking abortion (Tosto, 2022.)
The National Association of Social Workers indiciate that social workers shall "support the rights of individuals to make decisions regarding reproductive health without duress and according to their own personal beliefs and convictions."
Further, the NASW code of ethics states in 1.02 that the role of a social worker is to "assist in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals." Social workers do this by remaining unbiased and nonjudgmental and providing support, accurate information, and appropriate referrals,
Access to make decisions that support their goals should not be restricted by the client's gender. Therefore, restricting the access to abortion is a blantant disregard to reproductive rights and justice.
NASW
Reproductive Justice
Theoretical Framework
Reproductive justice is defined as the "complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, and economic well-being of women and girls...Women and girls have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction our ourselves, our families, and our communities."
Framework
Reproductive rights and justice framework is grounded in the framework of foundational social work values such as enhancing human well-being, paying attention to needs and empowerment of clients who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. Further it is grounded in the promotion of social justice and social change to strive towards ending discrimination, oppression, poverty and other forms of social injustice.
Core Values
The core values of this framework are "the right to have an abortion, the right to have children, and the right to parent those children."
Core Values
The Feminist Theory
Additional Framework
The Feminist Theory states that "reproductive decision-making relates to decisions about a woman's sexuality, fertility or reproductive system including if, and when, to have a child(ren), and the spacing and number of children, wether or not to utilise fertility control methods, assisted reproduction, and termination of pregnany." Further, that gender equity is key to acheiving equality and that the government contributes to gender-based steterostypes such as traditional gender roles and family structures by creating policies that impact a woman's reproductive decision-making. (Graham, 2022).
Practice Strategies
Practice Strategey
My future professional practice interest is working with women to promote reproductive justice. Hypothetically, I could work as a social worker at Planned Parenthood. I have serveral ideas on practice strategies to use with clients at Planned Parenthood such as:
Supporting a client who presented to the clinic in need of information and resources regarding what choices she has with her pregnancy.
Exploring feelings with the client regarding their options.
Presenting non biased information on all options
Identifying what goals the client has and how each choice will affect those goals.
A strengths perspective would be helpful to use with a client who presents with struggles relating to reproductive justice.
Hollistic Health
The Holistic Model of Health Care focuses on caring for the whole person, mind, body, and soul.. This model fits within the reproductive justice as it advocates for the woman's whole self, mind, body and soul. If a woman is does not have freedom of reproductive justice, s
As a social worker, I will keep in mind the holistic health of client and the right to choose. The social worker shall do this by allowing the client to make their own decisions on what is best for their health, body, mind, and soul. It is a very important job to support women in their reproductive choices as they are made by considering unique circumstances for more in depth than policy context allows. he cannot and is not receiving holistic care.
Macro Social Work Practice
Macro Level Practice
Macro social work can be used to benefit women as a whole. Advocacy to promote reproductive justice is the most emphasized macro work for reproductive justice (Clark, 2013.) Advocacy is needed at the institutional, local, state and federal levels (Graham, 2020). Policy reform could be utilized to create sound policies that allow women to make safe, knowledgable decisions regarding their own reproductive health. Advocacy can also be used in the community to spread knowlegde and awareness to the public. Lobbying can also be utilizted to advocate to those who make the laws (Clark, 2013.)