Reproductive Justice and Birth Equity are Powerful Organizing Frameworks

Reproductive Justice is a framework applied by the organizations that the Groundswell Fund supports within a range of contexts and to organize around multiple issues. Within this frame, communities organize to support people in their decisions about whether and when to have children, and to raise those children in safety and health.

Birth Equity refers to work specifically focused on creating optimal conditions for birth with a focus on addressing racial and social inequities.  

In 2021, organizations used these frameworks to mobilize around needs that communities identify as most pressing – whether providing safe, full-spectrum care reproductive and childbirth care, advocating for abortion access, working to eliminate toxins in toys, or improving the child welfare system. Organizing through this framework brought new allies to the table, more accurately reflected issues that concern community members, and offered opportunities to develop broader coalitions for reproductive rights.

Reproductive rights and access were at the heart of the work for most organizations participating in this evaluation. Many reproductive justice organizations are providing or campaigning for access to abortion, reproductive care, contraception, and/or sex education. Yet, it is the breadth of issues encompassed by reproductive justice that opens many doors for voters to connect with the movement.

In the stories shared by organizations within this report, we see how intersectional organizing under the reproductive justice framework is effective in their context and communities.