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Title: Feminist Vocabulary 101: Reproductive Rights: What They Are – Why We Need Them

Panel 1
Text: What do these people have in common?

(Group of people holding up signs)

Person 1: We need paid parental leave!

Person 2: Healthcare is a human right!

Person 3: Stop defunding family support services!

Person 4: “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” hurt women!

Text: They are all fighting for their reproductive rights.

Panel 2
Robot Hugs: “Reproductive rights” or “reproductive choice” is a term we use when we’re talking about the ability of every individual to have control over whether, when, and how they have or do not have children.

(Images of a single person, a couple, a couple with children, a single person with a child)

Panel 3
Text: Reproductive rights are most visibly present in the ongoing issues around restricting people’s ability to obtain abortions.

Person 5 to lawmaker: Oy! Keep your laws out of my uterus, buddy!

Panel 4
Text: However, reproductive choice also concerns issues such as access to birth control, fertility treatments, pregnancy care and support, medical treatments, and birthing options, as well as extended issues around raising a family.

Panel 5
Text: Factors influencing reproductive rights are present at every level of society:

Government (bill that says “72 hour waiting period”): Laws and legislation imposing medically unnecessary restrictions on how a doctor and patient can manage reproductive decisions.

Education (book titled “Abstinence Only”): Misleading or incomplete education to help individuals decide and control whether or when to have children

Criminal (person behind bars): Severely restricted pregnancy and abortion care, coercion towards sterilization, lack of access to children

Community (set of houses): Community values and/or environment that make pregnancy and child raising risky.

Economic (person holding a baby and a set of bills): Lack of support services, including financial aid and insurance, and prohibitively expensive procedures

Medical (doctor with crossed arms): Biased medical systems that devalue body autonomy and individual choice

Family (a family fighting): Coercion or shame around sex and pregnancy, risk of loss of shelter

Partnerships (condom packet with a safetyy pin though it): Abusive, co-dependant, or unhealthy partnerships that compromise family planning options

Individual (a person with question marks): Internal moral ambiguity around various options for reproductive decisions.

Panel 6
Text: Here are some examples of issues around reproductive choice.

Pregnant Person: My doctor is pressuring me to have a cesarean section.

Person Holding Child: I didn’t want to become pregnant, but my pharmacy wouldn’t give me any Plan B.

Couple: We so badly want children, but we just can’t support them on our income.

Person 6: My fetus has an abnormality. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what it means. I’m scared.

Person in Pain: My periods are cripplingly painful, and it’s stopping me from working, but no doctor will agree to provide a hysterectomy to someone in their 20s…

Person in Prison Uniform: When I gave birth, they shackled me to a table, and then they took my baby away.

Person Holding a “Black Lives Matter” Sign: I’m frightened that I can’t guarantee that my future children will be safe

Person 7: My boyfriend said he’d leave if I didn’t get an abortion.

Person in Wheelchair: None of my doctors know anything about what pregnancy would be like with my disability.

Person Holding Paperwork: My insurance doesn’t cover a midwife.

Person 8: I didn’t want to give him up for adoption, but I was 17 and homeless.

Person 9: I’m a pregnant trans man. Most of the world either doesn’t know I’m possible, or thinks I’m a joke.

Panel 7
Text: We usually speak about reproductive rights in terms of pregnancy, adoption, or abortion, and pro-choice and anti-choice positions.

(Multiple choice boxes saying “have child,” “give up for adoption,” “have abortion,” and “Pro-Choice,” “Anti-Choice,” and “It’s complicated”)

Panel 8
RH: But it’s important to remember that to comprehensively address each individual’s right to make full informed and independent decisions about reproduction and families, we need to address systems such as:

Text: Ableism

Person 10: My doctor told me that “people like me” shouldn’t get pregnant.

Text: Racism

Person Holding Child: I’m Inuit, and my community has an infant mortality rate four times higher than the rest of Canada.

Text: Poverty

Person 11: I can’t afford to buy birth control, and my government’s social support programs don’t cover it.

Text: Education

Person Holding Up Condoms: We were taught in school that condoms were useless.

Text: Homophobia

Couple: There are still agencies that refuse to adopt to us.

Text: Transphobia

Person Holding Up Passport: My government requires me to get genital surgery to recognize my gender – essentially I have to be sterilized for the government to recognize me.

Text: Slut-Shaming

Person 12: My family threw me out of the house when I got pregnant.

Text: Medical Assault

Person 13: When I was in labor, my doctor performed an epistiotomy on me without my consent.

Panel 9
Text: Because we deserve this.

Couple: We’re waiting to have a family.

Person Holding Child: I was able to work with my doctor to come up with a birth plan that works.

Triad: We’re starting fertility treatments next month.

Person 14: My abortion was safe, accessible, and compassionate.

Person 15: I am able to find the birth control that works best for me.

Person 16: I am not planning on having children.

Person 17: I was able to access medical procedures that made me healthier and improved my life.

Person with Family: I know my children will be cared for.

Panel 10
Text: Not this:

Person 18: I didn’t have a choice.