Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online

About
Feminist Pedagogy Literature
FPTO Book and Works
Contribute

Subject: Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature

Reproductive justice as intersectional feminist activism

Author(s):	Ross, L. J.
Date:	2017
Publication:	Souls
Citation:	Ross, L. J. (2017). Reproductive justice as intersectional feminist activism. Souls, 19(3), 286–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2017.1389634

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	(Abstract) Reproductive justice activists have dynamically used the concept of intersectionality as a source of empowerment to propel one of the most important shifts in reproductive politics in recent history. In the tradition of the Combahee River Collective, twelve Black women working within and outside the pro-choice movement in 1994 coined the term “reproductive justice” to “recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from the sharing and growing consciousness, to a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression.” Its popularity necessitates an examination of whether reproductive justice is sturdy enough to be analyzed as a novel critical feminist theory and a surprising success story of praxis through intersectionality. Offered to the intellectual commons of inquiry, reproductive justice has impressively built bridges between activists and the academy to stimulate thousands of scholarly articles, generate new women of color organizations, and prompt the reorganization of philanthropic foundations. This article defines reproductive justice, examines its use as an organizing and theoretical framework, and discusses Black patriarchal and feminist theoretical discourses through a reproductive justice lens.

February 11, 2026

Making women the subjects of the abortion debate: A class exercise that moves beyond “pro-choice” and “pro-life”

Author(s):	Crawley, S. L. Willman, R. K. Clark, L. & Walsh, C.
Date:	2009
Publication:	Feminist Teacher
Citation:	Crawley, S. L., Willman, R. K., Clark, L., & Walsh, C. (2009). Making women the subjects of the abortion debate: A class exercise that moves beyond “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” Feminist Teacher, 19(3), 227–240. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40546102

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	(Excerpt from article) In this article, we describe a classroom exercise designed to put women (and children and men) back at the center of the abortion debate, avoiding the standard rhetoric and engaging reflection on how we might find common political goals among the so-called pro-life and pro-choice sides. As feminists, we can avoid losing students who are accepting of feminists ideals on many issues but feel unable to participate in feminist movements because they ideologically disagree with legalized abortion. We also provide a brief history of the current public debate and a discussion abotu some problems that arise from a binary, polarizing debate. As we work toward creating a safe space, students and the instructor can take the vitriol out of the abortion debate and have a constructive conversation. The challenge is to direct the students to a certain degree, to facilitate intellectual debate without silencing any student altogether. With careful planning and active facilitation, we think this exercise allows just that.

February 11, 2026

Abortion as a feminist pedagogy of grief in Marianne Apostolides’s Deep Salt Water

Author(s):	Hurst, R. A. J.
Date:	2020
Publication:	Feminist Studies
Citation:	Hurst, R. A. J. (2020). Abortion as a feminist pedagogy of grief in Marianne Apostolides’s Deep Salt Water. Feminist Studies, 46(1), 43–73. https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2020.0011

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	(Excerpt) Deep Salt Water is a poetic textual and visual memoir about abortion and loss set against the backdrop of ecological catastrophe in the world’s oceans. It is the result of an artistic exchange between artist Catherine Mellinger and writer Marianne Apostolides. Apostolides’s memoir emerges during a complex and often fraught historical moment for abortion access in Canada, where she and Mellinger live, as well as the United States. Concerned about drawing attention to the reality that some “women feel guilt and grief at what is a rather violent surgical procedure (as most surgical procedures are),” Apostolides worried her work could be manipulated by anti-abortion activists and politicians to support the position that abortion rights should be revoked or severely curtailed.

February 11, 2026

Teaching about reproduction, politics, and social justice

Author(s):	Price, K.
Date:	2008
Publication:	Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy
Citation:	Price, K. (2008). Teaching about reproduction, politics, and social justice. Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, 19(2), 42–54. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43505850

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	In this essay, Price describes the development of a course that addresses the human rights and social justice aspects of reproduction in order for students to understand how social, political, and economic institutions and processes, and intersecting oppressions and privileges can affect the reproductive choices of individual women and entire communities, zooming out from the narrow concept of individual choice, which dominates discussions of reproductive rights in the United States. She discusses the theoretical foundations of reproductive justice and offers some strategies for its incorporation into courses on the politics of reproduction.

February 11, 2026

Making women the subjects of the abortion debate: A class exercise that moves beyond “pro-choice” and “pro-life”

Author(s):	Crawley, S. L. Willman, R. K. Clark, L. & Walsh, C.
Date:	2009
Publication:	Feminist Teacher
Citation:	Crawley, S. L., Willman, R. K., Clark, L., & Walsh, C. (2009). Making women the subjects of the abortion debate: A class exercise that moves beyond “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” Feminist Teacher, 19(3), 227–240. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40546102

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	(Excerpt from article) In this article, we describe a classroom exercise designed to put women (and children and men) back at the center of the abortion debate, avoiding the standard rhetoric and engaging reflection on how we might find common political goals among the so-called pro-life and pro-choice sides. As feminists, we can avoid losing students who are accepting of feminists ideals on many issues but feel unable to participate in feminist movements because they ideologically disagree with legalized abortion. We also provide a brief history of the current public debate and a discussion abotu some problems that arise from a binary, polarizing debate. As we work toward creating a safe space, students and the instructor can take the vitriol out of the abortion debate and have a constructive conversation. The challenge is to direct the students to a certain degree, to facilitate intellectual debate without silencing any student altogether. With careful planning and active facilitation, we think this exercise allows just that.

Abortion as a feminist pedagogy of grief in Marianne Apostolides’s Deep Salt Water

Author(s):	Hurst, R. A. J.
Date:	2020
Publication:	Feminist Studies
Citation:	Hurst, R. A. J. (2020). Abortion as a feminist pedagogy of grief in Marianne Apostolides’s Deep Salt Water. Feminist Studies, 46(1), 43–73. https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2020.0011

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	(Excerpt) Deep Salt Water is a poetic textual and visual memoir about abortion and loss set against the backdrop of ecological catastrophe in the world’s oceans. It is the result of an artistic exchange between artist Catherine Mellinger and writer Marianne Apostolides. Apostolides’s memoir emerges during a complex and often fraught historical moment for abortion access in Canada, where she and Mellinger live, as well as the United States. Concerned about drawing attention to the reality that some “women feel guilt and grief at what is a rather violent surgical procedure (as most surgical procedures are),” Apostolides worried her work could be manipulated by anti-abortion activists and politicians to support the position that abortion rights should be revoked or severely curtailed.

Teaching about reproduction, politics, and social justice

Author(s):	Price, K.
Date:	2008
Publication:	Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy
Citation:	Price, K. (2008). Teaching about reproduction, politics, and social justice. Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, 19(2), 42–54. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43505850

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	In this essay, Price describes the development of a course that addresses the human rights and social justice aspects of reproduction in order for students to understand how social, political, and economic institutions and processes, and intersecting oppressions and privileges can affect the reproductive choices of individual women and entire communities, zooming out from the narrow concept of individual choice, which dominates discussions of reproductive rights in the United States. She discusses the theoretical foundations of reproductive justice and offers some strategies for its incorporation into courses on the politics of reproduction.

Reproductive justice as intersectional feminist activism

Author(s):	Ross, L. J.
Date:	2017
Publication:	Souls
Citation:	Ross, L. J. (2017). Reproductive justice as intersectional feminist activism. Souls, 19(3), 286–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2017.1389634

Section on webpage:	Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Tenets:	Considering alternative histories and narratives. Examining how gender, intersecting with other social categories, structures our lives, learning, and knowledge production, access to resources and information. Honoring diversity and lived experiences through intersectional approaches.
Annotation:	(Abstract) Reproductive justice activists have dynamically used the concept of intersectionality as a source of empowerment to propel one of the most important shifts in reproductive politics in recent history. In the tradition of the Combahee River Collective, twelve Black women working within and outside the pro-choice movement in 1994 coined the term “reproductive justice” to “recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from the sharing and growing consciousness, to a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression.” Its popularity necessitates an examination of whether reproductive justice is sturdy enough to be analyzed as a novel critical feminist theory and a surprising success story of praxis through intersectionality. Offered to the intellectual commons of inquiry, reproductive justice has impressively built bridges between activists and the academy to stimulate thousands of scholarly articles, generate new women of color organizations, and prompt the reorganization of philanthropic foundations. This article defines reproductive justice, examines its use as an organizing and theoretical framework, and discusses Black patriarchal and feminist theoretical discourses through a reproductive justice lens.

Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online

Join our Community of Feminist Educators!

Receive our Insights articles, assignments, and updates in your inbox.

Cite the Guide

Howard, J., Daniel, C., Newman, L., Bond, N., and Romero-Hall, E. (eds.) “Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online.” (2025). https://feministsteach.org.

Contribute to the Guide

You may contribute to this guide by sharing resources and tools that you have used in the past, your own assignments, or blog posts that reflect on your pedagogy. We also welcome feedback such as suggestions for improvement, reporting broken links, and/or questions about feminist pedagogy and online education, please contact us at feministpedagogyonline@gmail.com.

Creative Commons

Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online: Digital Guide © 2020 by Jacquelyne Thoni Howard, Clare Daniel, Liv Newman, Niya Bond, and Enilda Romero-Hall is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Stay Connected

LinkedIn
Instagram
Mail

Submit Insights Articles

Submit Assignments