Everyone should have the freedom and ability to make their own decisions about their bodyand future. In the U.S., the assault on rights and access to reproductive care, discrimination in maternal health care, and the criminalization of pregnant people causes deep harm to families and communities, especially those pushed to the margins who have long endured trauma, systemic racism, and reproductive oppression.
Irving Harris Foundation seeks a world where bodily autonomy is a respected human right and all people have the resources they need to birth their children with dignity and to raise them in safeand sustainable communities. The Reproductive Health & Justice (RHJ) program invests in the reproductive justice* movement, supporting efforts led by impacted communities to build grassroots power, dismantle barriers to respectful care, and advance gender, reproductive, and birth justice.
*Reproductive Justice (RJ) was first defined as an organizing framework by 12 groundbreaking Black scholars and advocates referred to as the movement’s founding mothers in 1994: Toni M. Bond Leonard, Reverend Alma Crawford, Evelyn S. Field, Terri James, Bisola Marignay, Cassandra McConnell, Cynthia Newbille, Loretta Ross, Elizabeth Terry, ‘Able’ Mable Thomas, Winnette P. Willis, and Kim Youngblood.