Reproductive Access/Gendered Violence Movement

Our communities will not truly know liberation without reproductive access and freedom from gender-based violence.   

It’s hard to imagine a just and equitable world that doesn’t allow for people to have full control over decisions related to their body. This is why reproductive access and everything that falls under what we consider reproductive rights are inexorably intertwined with economic justice, racial justice, immigrant rights and health equity. 

As such, supporting those in reproductive access and gendered violence space is natural extension of our Movement Investment Project to focus on how philanthropy can serve as a better ally to frontline social justice movement activists and organizations 

Realizing the important changes that justice demands in this moment will require shifts in current narratives, frames and ultimately, power. Issues such as access to abortion services, doula support, comprehensive sex education, and the survival needs of transgender folks and efforts to decriminalize sex work need to be on philanthropy’s radar if the work is to expand beyond its current limits to all communities.

The work told in these pages looks to a valuable tool in that effort.

The March 2021 Issue of Responsive Philanthropy features insights from frontline experts on the importance of abortion storytelling, comprehensive sex education and maternal mortality.

What is the Reproductive Access and Gendered Violence Movement? 

What does gender justice means at NCRP? In analyzing and referring to the work of leaders and groups doing this work as part of the Reproductive Access and Gendered Violence Movement, we sought to create an inclusive and transparent title that gives both the movement and sector a coherent lens for what our work will center on 

It is specifically rooted two current terms 

Reproductive Access: Reproductive justice is a framework centering the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. But, we have to remember there is no justice without access. 

Gendered Violence: This portion of our work includes physical and sexual violence but also centers state and economic violence. Historically, movements that have centered domestic violence and intimate partner violence have focused their efforts on ciswomen rather than the intersectional scope that will save the lives of the most marginalized. 

We are linking these two terms because we cannot fundamentally and systematically eliminate gender inequality and violence against women, girls, gender expansive folxs, and LGBTQ+ people without lifting the barriers that exist to their sexual and reproductive health and rightstheir mental and physical safety. 

The Opportunity to Shift the Tide & Deepen Impact 

Over the past decade, increasingly restrictive state legislation, a more conservative Supreme Court and an federal administration that prioritized attacks on autonomy and access seemed to predict an end to the legal protections that are supposed to keep abortion safe, legal and accessible for all those seeking services.  

While a new year and a new Administration might signal greater cooperation with federal agencies,  it doesn’t eliminate the intense anti-abortion challenges that are still coming from state legislators or in the courts. Even more importantly, it doesn’t address the some of the problematic and limiting ways that frames and funds the work of advocacy groups and organizers 

Philanthropy’s current commitment to abortion advocacy at both state and national levels has provides support to ccommunity organizing and advocacy efforts to protect and defend reproductive rights. However, abortion access remains critically under-resourced, and reproductive access and gendered violence issues still largely centers cis-gender people. 

Issues such as access to doula support, comprehensive sex education, and the survival needs of transgender folks and efforts to decriminalize sex work need to be on philanthropy’s radar if the work is to expand beyond its current limits to all communities 

Our communities will not truly know liberation without reproductive access and freedom from gender-based violence.   

The question is: What will philanthropy do to help?

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