Summary: Transforming The Pro-Choice Movement By Loretta Ross

In the article, “Understanding Reproductive Justice: Transforming the Pro-Choice Movement,” the author, Loretta Ross, argues that while the pro-choice movement has achieved great strides in terms of acquiring and protecting legal abortion rights for women, it has done very little to address and/or challenge the structural inequalities that many women, especially women of color and lower class, have to face when simply trying to access and control their reproductive rights and destiny. Because of this, Loretta Ross proposes that we shift from using the term “pro-choice” when it comes to defining our movement to using a term that is more inclusive and representative of the realities that many non-white women have to face—this term being called “Reproductive Justice.” As was beautifully described in the beginning of her piece, Ross defines Reproductive Justice as being “the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, and economic well-being of women
Given this definition of Reproductive Justice as well as the amount of influence that intersectionality and intersectional analysis has had on feminist scholars, it is no secret as to why recent generations of women are much more understanding and accepting of this intersectional analysis and approach to women’s reproductive rights and, quite frankly, overall women’s rights. However, what really struck me from Ross’ reading was the fact that some supporters of the pro-choice movement, especially white women and older feminists, have actually found it insulting and offensive for us to say that “pro-choice” is not inclusive of all women in regards to their race, class, and sexuality to name a few. As was explained in the reading, these white women and older feminists take offense that even though they were the ones fighting to give women the right to choose, we