Right-wing and conservative rule in Europe, coupled with Trump’s second term, has pushed women, gender minorities, and various marginalised communities to the periphery, further jeopardising their human rights and safety. Women’s sexuality and reproductive justice is one entity that right-wing governments, especially the Trump administration with its uber-conservative and patriarchal government, want to control and tame. Gender minorities are the second entity the Trump administration wants to control, and in fact, a directive has already been put out that only two sexes are recognised in the US now—this is one of the first things that the Trump administration launched.
The Trump administration is erasing the years of advocacy work that many large-scale and small-scale organisations and groups—which received funding from the progressive government in the US—were doing for women and gender minorities in order to safeguard reproductive justice.
Reproductive rights and justice for women and gender minorities are something that progressive human rights organisations and many countries with left-wing and progressive governments have been advocating and fighting now for decades. Women’s right to give birth, right to abortion, and right to contraception, in short, the autonomy over their bodies is what reproductive rights are and ensuring that all women have these rights somewhat constitutes reproductive justice. Which is what right-wing governments across the world and the Trump regime want to control and curb. The Trump administration is erasing the years of advocacy work that many large-scale and small-scale organisations and groups—which received funding from the progressive government in the US—were doing for women and gender minorities in order to safeguard reproductive justice.
The Global Gag Rule (GGR) is basically an anti-women’s autonomy and anti-abortion policy kickstarted by the Trump administration that is going to put a stop to all the funding being donated and sponsored to abortion advocacy groups and organisations across the world putting a huge impact on the reproductive health advocacy organisations’ sustainability and survival. The move is not that surprising as the conservative governments have always been at the dagger’s end with women, their autonomy and gender minorities. Conservative governments are basically against marginalised genders and communities through and through.
In such times and epoch with constant threats and blows to women’s rights and rights of gender minorities by curbing reproductive rights and justice, which is part and parcel of Trump’s rule and other conservative governments, it becomes of utmost importance to speak about and create a discourse around reproductive rights and justice.
According to the World Health Organisation, “It is estimated that of the 210 million pregnancies that occur each year, some 80 million are unintended. In 2008, 21.6 million unsafe abortions were estimated to have occurred, causing the deaths of 47,000 women. These deaths due to unsafe abortion are mainly caused by severe infections or bleeding resulting from the unsafe abortion procedure, or due to organ damage.” Given the scale of harm that unsafe abortions cause, it becomes pertinent to comprehend how important reproductive health is as a social issue. Women’s reproductive health and rights are always compromised due to the moral and social stigma associated with it. For example, the issue of abortion is a healthcare and feminist issue, but society at large makes it a political and moral issue. Women’s autonomy over their minds and bodies is always a topic of debate for vested interests.
In order to ascertain that women’s reproductive health is well, one needs to make sure that women have reproductive rights, which can be done through advocacy for reproductive justice, which becomes of utmost importance, particularly now with the new GGR and Trump regime. To highlight the importance of advocacy for women’s and gender minorities’ reproductive rights and to make reproductive justice a success, FII aims to create a discourse around the same by inviting submissions on this month’s theme: Gender, Reproductive Justice, And Rights.
Here are some of the themes that you may find helpful in putting together your thoughts:
- Global Gag Rule and Advocacy
- Reproductive rights and conservative governments
- Abortion and social stigma
- Gender minorities, reproductive rights and right-wing rule
- Abortion as healthcare
- Abortion and religion
- GBV and Reproductive Rights
- CSA and Reproductive Rights
- Trans reproductive rights
- Abortion rights in lawmaking
This list is not exhaustive, and you may feel free to write on topics within the theme that we may have missed out on here. Please refer to our submission guidelines before you send us your entries. You may email your submissions to shahinda@feminisminindia.com.
We look forward to your drafts and hope you enjoy writing them!
About the author(s)
Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility and unravel the F-word among the youth in India.
