The racism that accompanies the fight for reproductive rights

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A year before the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Roe v. Wade, Shirley Chisholm understood its revolutionary potential. She had been the first black woman elected to Congress, and in 1972 she became both the first black person and the first woman to seek the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Although she lost, Chisholms’ slogan, Unbought and unbossed, captivated audiences across the country as she campaigned against poverty, racism and the criminalization of abortion.

Sunday would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, but now the reproductive rights movement should take a page from Chisholms’ playbook. The leadership of radical black feminists has always been the movement’s best bet. And yet, our voices are largely ignored.

Reproductive health care organizations have a well-documented history of anti-black racism. In recent years, black women working for Planned Parenthood have written open letters, leaked tapes and spoken with reporters about the hostility they faced at work.

Now that we’ve lost the constitutional right to abortion, will leaders finally be held accountable for their lackluster response to accusations of systemic racism?

In October, I filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood after being fired for speaking out against structural racism within the 106-year-old organization. In January 2020, I became the first Director of Multicultural Brand Engagement at Planned Parenthoods’ national office in New York. Like Chisholm, I felt empowered to use my First status to help others create a space where we could forge new bonds of trust between Planned Parenthood and Black and Latino people. To achieve this, I needed an investment in my work. This role should be valued.

Instead, I discovered that even with the future of abortion on the line, Planned Parenthood would rather celebrate Chisholm with a tweet than have someone on staff embody his boldness.

Black feminism is something that mainstream reproductive rights groups like to say they practice, but there is always a tendency to use white supremacy and the mission of the movement to sideline us, silence us, scapegoating and suspending us. Planned Parenthood implores politicians to be bold and relentless in their advocacy for access and justice, but expects black workers to be silent about the harm they experience in the office and on Zooms.

I used to say Roe was the ground floor of reproductive rights. In retrospect, it was a penthouse, built for the privileged and able-bodied enough to make it to the high entrance. As a black woman, once you arrived, whether as a staff member or a patient, the air was often charged with anti-black racism and white privilege. If you were candid enough to point out the inequity, you were shown the door. The movement had become a revolving door of BIPOC women who wanted more of a movement than pink hats and The Handmaids Tale costumes.

Now that the constitutional right to abortion has been overturned, at least 66 clinics in 15 states have been forced to stop offering abortions. The SCOTUS decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization means nearly a third of women now live in a state where abortion is either unavailable or severely restricted. People who believe in abortion rights are numb and still in shock.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s this: now we have the option to reset. To create a movement that is truly accessible and more inclusive and robust than it ever was, even when Roe was the law of the land.

As abortion rights advocates scramble to hammer out a new game plan, now is the perfect time to heed Chisholm’s radical call. We need to disengage from traditional ideas of feminism and power that are rooted in white supremacy and dominance.

I have a theory about the campaign. You have to let them feel you, Chisholm said. It was time for the movement to give supporters something they could feel. And who better than black women who are about three times more likely to die of childbirth than white women to lead this charge?

With more than 600 health centers nationwide and deep ties to powerful, mostly white, Democratic donors, Planned Parenthood has a virtual monopoly on the reproductive health care narrative. But being unbought and bossless forces us to stop adhering to traditional notions of corporate hierarchy and white privilege. In the words of black feminist writer Audre Lorde, [W]We cannot use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house.

Instead, we must revisit our radical origins by making massive investments in grassroots Black-led organizing.

How can we get there? For starters, Planned Parenthood and other large reproductive health care organizations should embrace unionization. Unions and collective bargaining provide critical protections for support staff and frontline clinic workers, who are increasingly overworked and underpaid as patients in abortion-banning states travel out of state seeking care.

As of this writing, hundreds of employees at dozens of family planning clinics nationwide have formed unions. But Planned Parenthood has an alleged history of union busting. In western Pennsylvania last month, employees won their first union contract after 20 months of negotiations, with some saying Planned Parenthood was dragging its feet. At its national headquarters in New York and San Francisco, contract negotiations have been ongoing for more than a year.

The era of anti-union struggle must end. Full stop.

Second, reproductive rights organizations need to stop using diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a performance art and start doing the very hard work of being anti-racist. Placing a few black women in leadership positions and providing anti-harassment training will not be enough. Check all of your policies and procedures through the lens of the communities of color you serve.

Make rest and rage the cornerstones of the movement. When black women express their anger at being undervalued and overworked, listen to them. Those of us who do the work of engaging, organizing and caring for communities of color are tired. Recognize that professionalism and decorum in the workplace are often used to perpetuate the racist angry black woman trope. Now that Roe is lost, we need to channel our collective anger and make some noise. We must be defiant.

Donors, think carefully about the pro-choice organizations you support. Instead of throwing money behind branded national nonprofits, consider supporting independent clinics, especially in red states that perform 55% of all abortions nationwide, according to a recent report. of Abortion Care Network. There are many other smaller grassroots organizations run by radical black women, like the Afiya Center, the Yellowhammer Fund, and SisterSong, that need our support now more than ever.

And finally, let me offer a radical idea: instead of running health care hubs like Big Tech corporations with a CEO leading the charge, let’s invest in public health from the bottom up. Food co-ops transformed communities that were food deserts into quality food hubs owned by the neighborhoods they served. Why not change the power models at Planned Parenthood and give branch employees a seat at the table? Let’s really root reproductive health care in the local communities it serves by giving not only jobs to people living in those neighborhoods, but also the power to make decisions about how centers are run, how people are treated and the ability to enjoy the care of our own.

If we are to resuscitate the movement and create new pathways to care, it will require all of us, executives, staff, organizers, donors and supporters, to be resolutely radical in our anti-racist stance. The days of prioritizing politics and power over people must be over.

As Trevor Noah said in his final signature on The Daily Show, if you really want to know more about America, talk to black women. Because, unlike everyone else, black women can’t afford to mess around and find out.

We have already lost Roe; let’s not waste time and let’s not lose the fire that sparked this movement in the first place.

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