ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at abortion rights activism in the United States of America (hereafter: America) and how this is centrally influenced by, but not limited to, questions of race, class, and subjugation in discussions around criminalisation, intervention, and incarceration. Debates shaped by the African American community are grounded in histories of slavery and legal intervention. The paradigm of reproductive justice emerged from Black feminist debates around abortion, and notions of ‘life’ and ‘personhood’ are a part of religious opposition backed by scientific technology across categories. Reproductive autonomy and racial-birthing relations are central themes in this chapter, as well as a discussion of contemporary legal upheavals.
