Working In Reproductive Justice: An Interview With Dr. Chris Barcelos

Screen Shot 2021-04-04 at 5.03.21 PM.png

Written by Ariana King, Culture Editorial Assistant

It’s a snowy day, and I’ve just made the long trek to the opposite side of town to meet with one of my freshman year professors. Teaching at UW-Madison is just one of the latest steps in Dr. Barcelos’ long career in reproductive justice that began at New Hampshire College during a Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program (CLIP) conference. It was there that reproductive justice became more than just access to safe abortion; instead, it was about freedom from state violence, access to child care, protection from environmental deterioration and everything in between.

Since then, Dr. Barcelos—Associate Professor in the Gender & Women’s Studies Department— has advocated for reproductive justice in a number of ways, including working as a volunteer doula for low-income folks, co-facilitating a group consciousness team for pregnant and parenting teenagers, research and—most recently—teaching.

Dr. Barcelos also recently finished an ethnography coming out in December titled “Distributing Condoms and Hope: The Racialized Politics of Youth Sexual Health” as part of the University of California’s Reproductive Justice series that focuses on Latinas. The theme centers on a shared marginal relationship to dominant power or the idea that oppression based on race, sexuality, gender, ability, immigrant status, etc. are all interconnected. One system of oppression can’t be completely separated from the other.

This means, Dr. Barcelos explains, that teen moms are in a similar position with dominant power as the trans community in that their sexuality is deemed deviant and regulated by society and the government. To elaborate, only once we recognize these shared overlapping oppressions will we be able to build broader coalitions and organize more effectively.

When asked about the two sides of the abortion debate, Dr. Barcelos says that anti-abortion advocates have been much more effective at mobilizing their supporters than abortion advocates. Since abortion is seen as a controversial issue that we’re “not supposed to talk about,” many abortion advocates decided the best place to start was through visibility campaigns like #ShoutYourAbortion and many others.

But while Dr. Barcelos agrees that this is important for the destigmatization and normalization of abortion, this visibility is very limited because it only talks about abortion on an individual level. It doesn’t address the structural oppression that limits access overall.

That’s why Dr. Barcelos favors a multi-tactic approach that incorporates all parts of society—from the lawyers fighting for better reproductive legislation to the local grassroots organizations that provide transportation, child care and funding to folks needing an abortion. Yet, despite all the work being done, Dr. Barcelos points out the challenges the reproductive justice movement faces.

As far as a personal response to anti-abortion supporters, Dr. Barcelos always responds with the statement that, as a public health professional, criminalizing abortion is bad for public health—and there is a ton of research to support that. From Dr. Barcelos’ experience, using that logic often quiets disagreement more than the “moral” argument for abortion because it meets people where they’re at.

But it’s still a fine line to cross. In Dr. Barcelos’ view, the democratic movement has paid a high price for their compromises and increased stigmatization of abortion, saying it should be “safe, legal and rare”—the word “rare” implying that abortion is inherently bad.

Another way in which the reproductive justice movement wobbles is in the inclusion of trans folks—or rather, not including trans folks. Many reproductive justice organizations feel threatened by trans people, as they are afraid that including them will take away attention from the patriarchal oppression that affects cisgender women.

For Dr. Barcelos, the failure to include trans people is a missed opportunity to build power through coalitions, as everyone’s marginal experiences are intertwined. For abortion work specifically, abortion rights activists may be getting better about saying “pregnant people” instead of “pregnant women,” but the exclusion of trans women from reproductive health movements remains.

In my experience, I’ve never heard of any reproductive justice organization call attention to issues facing trans women, like the impacts of hormones on reproductive capabilities, the right to raise their child with dignity or the extra barriers in place for trans women to adopt. Ignoring or bypassing these heavily prevalent issues trans women face divides us once again and works against our collective liberation.

As for any final advice for new activists, Dr. Barcelos tells me there are always abortion funding organizations that need volunteers. But, it’s still important for new advocates to proceed with caution. Too often, new volunteers want to start new movements or organizations, even when there are already lots of people in the line of work already.

The best thing to do, Dr. Barcelos says, is to reach out to organizations and activists and ask what they need. If they tell you all you can do is give them money or volunteer your time, you need to respect it. Otherwise, you risk doing more harm than help.