ABSTRACT
After the 2010 midterm elections, during which the anti-choice movement gained a foothold in state legislatures nationwide, policies reducing access to health care swept the nation. Lawmakers utilizing ideology, not science, forced reproductive health clinics to close, thus reducing access to health care which has had a direct impact on maternal and infant health outcomes. The concept of valuing Black lives resonated so deeply we named our own movement after Black Lives Matter, founded and coined by three Black women. Reproductive justice is a framework created by Black women in 1994 that centers on three human rights values. The Black Mamas Matter movement acknowledges and shows gratitude to the Black women and femmes who created reproductive justice and birth justice, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, and to all of those who have organized and cared for our communities with these frameworks as their guide.
