Advancing Reproductive Justice with SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

Reproductive Justice is an expansive framework, directly intertwining reproductive health and rights with broader tenants of restorative and social justice. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective works through their staff in Georgia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, as well as organizational members of the collective to organize for policy change, call people into the Reproductive Justice movement, and provide more functional support, such as financial support for baby supplies.

Ashley worked on SisterSong’s Programming Team, based in Durham, North Carolina, working most closely with the North Carolina Coordinator. Ashley’s summer included both North Carolina-based policy work, as well as organizing outreach events across the Southeast U.S. Ashley’s first week in the internship consisted of attending protests at the North Carolina General Assembly and strategizing at North Carolina reproductive rights coalition meetings following the passage of Senate Bill 20, a bill heavily restricting legal access to abortion in North Carolina.

Ashley also worked on implementing SisterSong’s ‘RJ on Tour’ Program, a bus tour across the Southeast to strengthen and generate new ties in the U.S. South. The bus tour consisted of 8 events in Durham, NC; Monroe, NC; Lexington, KY; Louisville, KY; Savannah, GA; Atlanta, GA; New Orleans, LA; and Essence Festival for Black Culture in New Orleans, LA. Ashley provided logistical support across all stops and directly helped organize the North Carolina stops. Ashley partnered with the LGBTQ Centre of Durham to show and discuss a short film on coercive intersex surgeries, highlighting how LGBTQIA+ liberation is foundational to the mission of the Reproductive Justice framework.