WORD stands with Latinas and their communities
WORD supports the Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice 2104, and will continue to work for change and fight for true justice. Below is a solidarity statement signed by WORD and other organizations.
We declare our solidarity with, and commitment to work alongside, Latinas, their families, and communities, as they struggle for reproductive justice and the recognition of their human rights.
Twenty years ago, a group of visionary Black women created the Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework, founding a transformational and culturally grounded movement for human rights and social change. Latinas across the country joined with Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Indigenous hermanas in embracing this new reproductive justice framework. In the process, we reframed our organizing and advocacy to work across issues and identities while building the movement for dignity, justice, and self-determination for ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Despite gains made over 20 years of organizing, resistance, and collaboration within the framework of reproductive justice, our communities are threatened. Latinas across the country are facing deportation, restrictions on access to abortion and other critical reproductive health services, violence, discrimination, lack of health care, and the denial of our human rights.
We declare our support for the full recognition of the human and civil rights of Latinas: among these are the human right to health care, including reproductive health care; the ability to decide when and if to have children, build families, and parent children with dignity; and freedom from policies that disregard the humanity and contributions of immigrant people.
Finally, we pledge to work in partnership and community with Latinas and reproductive justice advocates to join our struggles and build more inclusive movements for social change. We will fight together to challenge and dismantle the oppressive systems that deny the self-determination and humanity of Latinas, to transform our culture, and to work for change. The time is now.