“Nobody Ever Asks Me:” A Reproductive Justice Approach to Rural Health Disparities

Abstract

Rural women within the southern United States face complex challenges when attempting to access reproductive health care. A reproductive justice framework provides an intersectional approach to understanding the experiences of women from varying backgrounds. Researchers conducted 52 in-depth interviews with women aged 18-44 years in rural South Carolina to understand perceived reproductive health care barriers through a reproductive justice framework. Interviews were analyzed using a constant-comparative method with qualitative data analysis software HyperRESEARCH 3.7.2. Reproductive justice served as the conceptual lens. Participants noted barriers to reproductive health care including cost, poor quality of care, and long wait times. Participants described confidentiality concerns and lack of facilities. Insufficient access to health care for women in conjunction with racial and cultural norms revealed intersectionality between gender and race. Participants reported limited autonomy over health decisions due to generational habits of not seeking care and predetermined Rural Health 79 attitudes toward health, influencing social capital and access to care. Findings suggest the need for grassroots organizing to shift the focus from reproductive rights to reproductive justice, facilitating autonomous health decisions and supportive environments to exercise decision making. Robust understandings of women's lived experiences offer insights to addressing health barriers in rural communities.Roughly 51 million Americans live in rural areas, which are characterized by sparse populations, underdeveloped economic infrastructures, and significant barriers to healthcare (Douthit, Kiv, Dwolatzky, & Biswas, 2015). Women residing in rural communities experience challenges to accessing health care, including increased poverty, lack of health insurance, and longer travel distances to seek health care (ACOG

Access to Justice for Illiterate Women in the Southern Char Areas of Bangladesh

“…Gender has a significant influence on one's access to justice (Moulds, 1978;Sandefur, 2008). Women frequently confront gender-specific impediments in the legal system, such as discriminatory attitudes from legal staff and social biases that deter women from pursuing justice (Moulds, 1978;Smith, Sundstrom, and DeMaria, 2019). While gender discrepancies in access to justice are well-documented, this study intends to investigate these gaps among a specific subpopulation of illiterate women living in rural regions, where gender norms and cultural practices may worsen existing inequities.…”