Police Violence and Reproductive Justice

Cosmopolitan.com (Jul. 18, 2016): Police Violence Is a Reproductive Justice Issue, by Leslie Watson Malachi:

In this piece, Malachi reflects on mothers who have lost their sons to violent police officers.  Police violence is a reproductive justice issue, she argues, because "[w]omen must not only have the right to choose abortion, but also the right to choose to bring a child into this world and raise them in an environment free from violence. It's a right that is demolished every time young people of color are questionably gunned down by the police."

Malachi easily finds the connection between reproductive justice and an environment free of racially-motivated police violence in the fact that the reproductive justice movement was founded by African-American women as a way of promoting the well being of women, their families, and their communities.  This movement hinges not only on the constitutionally guaranteed right of women to make decisions about whether and when to exercise their reproductive potential but on "the social justice rights of women of color to safely raise a child in our country."