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Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement
While most people believe that the movement to secure voluntary reproductive control for women centered solely on abortion rights, for many women abortion was not the only, or even primary, focus.
Jennifer Nelson tells the story of the feminist struggle for legal abortion and reproductive rights in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s through the particular contributions of women of color. She explores the relationship between second-wave feminists, who were concerned with a woman's right to choose, Black and Puerto Rican Nationalists, who were concerned that Black and Puerto Rican women have as many children as possible "for the revolution," and women of color themselves, who negotiated between them. Contrary to popular belief, Nelson shows that women of color were able to successfully remake the mainstream women's liberation and abortion rights movements by appropriating select aspects of Black Nationalist politics--including addressing sterilization abuse, access to affordable childcare and healthcare, and ways to raise children out of poverty--for feminist discourse.
Jennifer Nelson tells the story of the feminist struggle for legal abortion and reproductive rights in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s through the particular contributions of women of color. She explores the relationship between second-wave feminists, who were concerned with a woman's right to choose, Black and Puerto Rican Nationalists, who were concerned that Black and Puerto Rican women have as many children as possible "for the revolution," and women of color themselves, who negotiated between them. Contrary to popular belief, Nelson shows that women of color were able to successfully remake the mainstream women's liberation and abortion rights movements by appropriating select aspects of Black Nationalist politics--including addressing sterilization abuse, access to affordable childcare and healthcare, and ways to raise children out of poverty--for feminist discourse.
225 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2003
About the author
Jennifer Nelson
17 books3 followersLibrarian Note: This profile contains multiple authors.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 6, 2008
My absolutely favorite thing about this book is the chapter "Abortions under community control": Feminism, Nationalism, and the Politics of Reproduction among NYC's Young Lords. in my opinion, this chapter is THE reason to pick up this book. This chapter describes a model that revolutionary organizations today can learn from for how to fight feminist struggles for liberation that keep Reproductive Justice (and women of color) at the center. Although what we do/build today will be drastically different than the Young Lords in the late 60s early 70s, there are lots of lessons to be learned in that chapter.
February 19, 2008
The best we've read all year, hands down. Sensitively handled subject matter; very well done.
May 12, 2008
such
a
good
book
a
good
book
June 7, 2015
Informative, but kind of boring
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August 19, 2026muito bom! gostei muito do capítulo sobre os Young Lords e Porto Rico, é sensacional. a Jennifer Nelson tem uma escrita ótima, sem tentativa de rebuscar, bem objetiva também
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews