Loretta Ross

Marlene Gerber Fried

Jael Miriam Silliman

Elena Gutiérrez

Undivided Rights captures the evolving and largely unreported history of women of colour organizing themselves in their struggle for reproductive justice. This pioneering volume presents a fresh, textured, and expanded understanding of the reproductive rights movement by foregrounding the experiences, priorities, and activism of women of colour.Weaving together pieces from personal interviews, organizational files, and archived documents, the book features the groundbreaking work being undertaken by women of colour who have defined and implemented expansive reproductive health agendas. Rejecting legalistic remedies and seeking instead to address the wider needs of their communities, they stress the urgent need for innovative strategies that push beyond the traditional base and goals of the mainstream pro-choice movementâ__strategies that are broadly inclusive while being specifically effective.While raising tough questions about inclusion, identity politics, and the future of women's organizing, the authors offer a way out of the limiting focus on "choice," and articulate a holistic vision for reproductive freedom. With Undivided Rights, the authors echo the words of Lila Watson, an aboriginal activist:"If you have come to help me, please go away. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, let us work together."A read both inspiring and informative, this volume will be prized by activists and academics alike, who will come to look upon it as a foundational work in the annals of women's history.

Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice

Undivided Rights

Jael Silliman

Undivided Rights captures the evolving and largely unknown activist history of women of color organizing for reproductive justice—on their own behalf. Undivided Rights presents a textured understanding of the reproductive rights movement by placing the experiences, priorities, and activism of women of color in the foreground. Using historical research, original organizational case studies, and personal interviews, the authors illuminate how women of color have led the fight to control their own bodies and reproductive destinies. Undivided Rights shows how women of color—-starting within their own Latina, African American, Native American, and Asian American communities—have resisted coercion of their reproductive abilities. Projected against the backdrop of the mainstream pro-choice movement and radical right agendas, these dynamic case studies feature the groundbreaking work being done by health and reproductive rights organizations led by women-of-color. The book details how and why these women have defined and implemented expansive reproductive health agendas that reject legalistic remedies and seek instead to address the wider needs of their communities. It stresses the urgency for innovative strategies that push beyond the traditional base and goals of the mainstream pro-choice movement—strategies that are broadly inclusive while being specific, strategies that speak to all women by speaking to each woman. While the authors raise tough questions about inclusion, identity politics, and the future of women’s organizing, they also offer a way out of the limiting focus on "choice." Undivided Rights articulates a holistic vision for reproductive freedom. It refuses to allow our human rights to be divvied up and parceled out into isolated boxes that people are then forced to pick and choose among.

Marlene Gerber Fried

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