Controlling black women’s reproductive health rights: An impetus to black women’s collective organizing

Abstract

This article analyzes how the Brazilian state’s control of black women’s reproductive health rights shaped the emergence of the black women’s movement and organizations, particularly the rise in black women’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs). To understand the circumstances surrounding the state’s regulatory practices’ impact on reproductive health, I recount the history of the implementation of family planning policies of the 1960s through the 1980s and interrelated social action in the country. The essay focuses on the activism of the black women’s movement during the historical period from the 1960s to the 1980s, identifying their struggles around issues of reproductive health rights. I examine the political divergences black women activists encounter with state institutions and representatives, the broader black movement, the mainstream feminist movement, and other important social and political forces.