Reproductive justice emerged as a movement because women with low incomes, women of colour, women with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQ+ people felt marginalized in the reproductive rights movement of the 1970s, which focused primarily on pro-choice versus pro-life debates.
In 1997, 16 women-of-colour-led organizations representing four communities of colour, including Native American, Latin American, African American and Asian American, launched the non-profit SisterSong to build a national reproductive justice movement in the United States. Since then, numerous reproductive justice organizations have formed around the world with the goal of improving social, political and economic inequalities that impact a woman’s ability to access reproductive health care services.