Rebuilding a Reproductive Future Informed by Disability and Reproductive Justice

Abstract

Access to legal abortion has eroded significantly since the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court ruling, which reversed the previously acknowledged constitutional right to abortion (Rader et al., 2022). Since then, threats to abortion access have continued with state and federal court and legislative challenges (Cohen, Donley, & Rebouché, 2023). Researchers, policy makers, and practitioners have focused on how restrictions disproportionately harm the most vulnerable, including minors, people living in poverty, immigrants, racialized people, and people with disabilities (Hassan et al., 2022; Kozhimannil et al., 2022; Ogbu-Nwobodo et al., 2022). This shift is noteworthy given the missteps of the past; reproductive health and rights frameworks have historically failed to center these populations in both clinical decision-making and policy (Nourse, 2011). In a post-Dobbs world, as modes of care and access change and transform, equity conscious stakeholders can and should re-define what justice-informed reproductive health care is, how it is operationalized, and who it empowers.