The reproductive justice movement’s call for bodily autonomy extends beyond walls and borders. As a framework that was coined by Black and Indigenous women and other women of color, the inherent need to place the most marginalized at the epicenter of reproductive freedom speaks to the many intersections of this cause. One cannot recognize the right to reproductive safety without acknowledging the ongoing reproductive violence in Palestine. The unconscionable atrocities against the Palestinian people, not only since October 7 but for the last 75 years, are staunchly antithetical to the reproductive justice movement.

Reproductive justice is both a theoretical objective and a structure for activists advocating around three human rights values: the right to safely choose not to have children; the right to have children under chosen circumstances; and the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments. The horror we are witnessing in Gaza is a clear violation of the Palestinian people’s ability to parent their children in an environment free from state violence and settler colonialism.

Positioning reproductive justice as a humanitarian framework allows it to aim at dismantling all intersecting oppressions that stand in the way of full bodily autonomy. In other words, reproductive justice connects the local to the global and links the individual to the community. Standing in solidarity with people in the U.S. who face a post-Roe political landscape is to also stand in solidarity with Palestinians who lack access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care under apartheid.

In Palestine, women have suffered the consequences of Israel’s systematic denial of sexual and reproductive health care long before October 7. Over 94,000 Palestinian women lack access to such services, as reported by the United Nations Population Fund.

Gaza is home to over 2 million people, 50 percent of whom are children, and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. For decades, Palestinian children have grown up in what many refer to as an “open-air prison” and have witnessed a life characterized by psychological trauma and a lack of food, medical services and freedom of movement. Since the severe escalation of Israeli violence, thousands of children have been killed while hundreds more are reported missing or trapped under mounds of rubble from near-constant Israeli airstrikes.

The reproductive violence experienced by Palestinian women, newborn babies and children has been deemed a human rights violation by several international humanitarian groups.

The reproductive violence experienced by Palestinian women, newborn babies and children has been deemed a human rights violation by several international humanitarian groups. Still, we have yet to see an end to the indiscriminate bombing and forced displacement of Gaza’s Indigenous population. Israel will not stop at ordering a mass exodus of Gaza’s population to the south under the guise of “safety” only to launch an even fiercer land and air invasion.

There are over 50,000 pregnant people in Gaza........

© Truthout