What is Birth Justice?
We believe that Birth Justice exists when women and transfolks are empowered during pregnancy, labor, childbirth and postpartum to make healthy decisions for themselves and their babies.
Birth Justice is part of a wider movement against reproductive oppression. It aims to dismantle inequalities of race, class, gender and sexuality that lead to negative birth experiences, especially for women of color, low-income women, survivors of violence, immigrant women, queer and transfolks, and women in the Global South.
Working for Birth Justice involves educating the community, and challenging abuses by medical personnel and overuse of medical interventions. It also involves advocating for universal access to culturally appropriate, women-centered health care. It includes the right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy, to choose when, where, how, and with whom to birth, including access to traditional and indigenous birth-workers, such as midwives and doulas, and the right to breastfeeding support.
Organizational Goals
Help spread the word about our organization and our goals.
Bring awareness to the disparity of care in the health industry between white women and women of color.
BWBJ has developed organizing goals based on our work with Black Mamas and Black Birthworkers.
Read our publications
BWBJ has co-produced publications to help people understand birth justice.
Learn more about the movement for birth justice through our publications. BWBJ has co-produced two books;
Battling Over Birth, Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis and
Birthing Justice, Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth.