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Zakiya Luna, Review of Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice, Social Forces, Volume 100, Issue 1, September 2021, Page e13, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab033
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Reviewer: Rocío R. García, Arizona State University, USA
In the introduction to her book, Zakiya Luna raises the question: “What happens when we center women of color’s organizing?” (p. 9). Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice demonstrates the ontological and epistemological importance of this question using an array of qualitative data, including interviews, participant observations, and archival documents. In an empirically rich text with implications across sociology, feminist studies, anthropology, public policy, and ethnic studies, Reproductive Rights as Human Rights joins a powerful body of scholarship that draws on the unique standpoints of feminists of color for making sense of reproductive politics and strategies for engaging intersecting grievances, motivations, and claims-making.
Luna focuses on the intersectional movement for reproductive justice, in particular the social movement organization SisterSong that “grew to be the largest and most visible organizational coalition in the reproductive justice movement” (p. 4). Luna notes that reproductive justice—defined as equally advocating for the right to have children, the right not to have children, and the right to parent—is often understood by activists and scholars alike as intimately linked to human rights. Luna draws on this observation as a launching point to interrogate why and how reproductive justice is recognized as a human rights issue, a significant undertaking given that the United States reflects a longstanding mixture of hostility and confusion regarding the human rights approach. As Reproductive Rights as Human Rights demonstrates, the fact that few social movements in the United States draw on the human rights approach as a claims-making strategy is neither inconsequential nor a mere coincidence.
