Spatializing Reproductive Justice

Abstract

Coined in 1994 by a caucus of Black women activists, reproductive justice is the “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities”.1 After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, access to reproductive healthcare is radically restricted across the U.S., compounding systemic race, gender, and class-based inequities that have always made healthcare inaccessible for many. The landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 rolled back nearly 50 years of reproductive rights protections and unleashed a plethora of laws that make it more difficult to access reproductive health care, riskier to assist those seeking care, and precarious to teach about issues of race, gender, and sexuality. As stated in the dissenting opinion by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, “Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.”2 In the U.S. today, bodily autonomy and academic freedom are geographically situated. Within this context of curtailed freedoms, architects and educators must confront the spatial realities of these restrictions. New dialogues must emerge at architecture’s intersectional edges – between designers, activists, social justice advocates, legal experts, public health practitioners, and students – to explore how the built environment can better support human lives.