The Urgency for Reproductive Freedom: From Slavery to the New Jane Crow
(Still valid information, even after the knives in our backs)
The Urgency for Reproductive Freedom: From Slavery to the New Jane Crow
5/24/2022 by Michele Goodwin
On May 18, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing “Revoking Your Rights: The Ongoing Crisis in Abortion Care Access.” Among those testifying was Dr. Michele Bratcher Goodwin, chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, and executive producer of Ms. Studios. A portion of her testimony submitted to Congress is published below.
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Abortion rights advocates in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, during oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Legal and Historical Analysis
In this term, the Supreme Court demonstrated its willingness to selectively read and ignore its own jurisprudence when it allowed a draconian Texas abortion ban, Senate Bill 8, to go into effect. S.B. 8 is a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before which many women, girls and pregnant-capable people even realize they are pregnant. As with its shameful predecessors, the Fugitive Slave Acts, the bounty provision incentivizes private individuals to spy upon, surveil and interfere with others who are asserting fundamental human and constitutional rights such as bodily autonomy, privacy and freedom. When states coerce and force women, girls and people with the capacity for pregnancy to remain pregnant against their will, they create human chattel and incubators of them.
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When states coerce and force women, girls and people with the capacity for pregnancy to remain pregnant against their will, they create human chattel and incubators of them. By doing so, state lawmakers force their bodies into the service of state interests.
There is a cruel irony to this, buttressed on one end by the abolition of human slavery in the U.S., and on the other end, the repeal of draft laws that forced young men to surrender their bodies to the state in order to protect our nation. Today, Texas, Mississippi and other states with “trigger” bans make clear that the essences of chattel bondage and the draft have returned—but only for women, girls and pregnant-capable people.
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Both the Texas and Mississippi bills emerge from male-dominant legislatures that pay little attention to keeping women and girls alive during pregnancy in their states. Sadly, as history shows, the Texas and Mississippi of old, are also the Texas and Mississippi of today—states whose legacies of resistance to the equality and freedom of Black and Brown women linger today. It continues to be the case that Black women are rendered invisible and dispensable in states that historically and legislatively have shown little regard for their lives. Black women are the canaries in the coal mine, and this period marks the New Jane Crow.
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Finally, history reveals the cruelties of racism, sexism and white supremacy in forced labor and reproduction. It is an undeniable history recorded by this very Congress. And, should the Supreme Court dismantle Roe v. Wade, its decision will be the modern day corollary and appendage to Plessy v. Ferguson—anchoring separate but equal legal discourse in matters of reproductive health, rights and justice.
https://msmagazine.com/2022/05/24/abortion-slavery-reproductive-freedom-13th-amendment-constitution-black-women-history/