Debates around reproductive freedom and State policies have reinforced the black/white dichotomy that pits white women who are pushed into bearing children against colored women who are systematically denied the right to have children, or to have children in socio-economically advantageous environments. The reproductive rights movement was and to a lesser extent still is characterized by its failure to account for any experience that may differ from that of white middle to upper-class women. Focus on only the experiences and concerns of one group kept the reproductive rights movement from organizing across class and race lines, and thus kept it from realizing the true potential for change that could have been offered by a

woman must experience a 24 hour waiting period after a consultation with an abortion doctor or clinic before a woman can finally decide to have an abortion. (GIVE MORE INFO such as the HEARING that made this mandatory [plnd prnthd]) The waiting period "burdens low-income women more severely because more wages may be lost, and expenses, such as for childcare, travel and hotel stays, may increase" ("Abortion Access," 11/12/99). The denial of coverage thanks to the Hyde Ammendment has further implications aside from the fact that it often forces women to opt for sterilization. "For some women, denial of coverage is tantamount to denial of abortion. Often, by the time a woman scrapes together $250 which is the average cost for a first trimester abortion, she is in her second trimester and the cost and risks of abortion are higher" ("Abortion Access," 11/12/99). I would add as well, that the access to abortion at this time is even more scarce now that that late trimester abortions !

Peters, Cynthia. "Every Sperm is Sacred." P. 187 - 193. In From Abortion to Reproductive Freedom: Transforming a Movement. Ed. Marlene Gerber Fried. South End Press: Boston, 1990.

"What is urgently required is a broad campaign to defend the reproductive rights of all women and especially those women whose economic circumstances often compels them to relinquish the right to reproduction itself" (Davis 206).

Reynolds, Moira Davidson. Women Advocates of Reproductive Rights Eleven who Lead the Struggle in the United States and Great Britain. McFarland & Company,

rilization. "The denial of abortion funding and access is clearly racist in its consequences: Poor women are disproportionately women of color and are more likely to suffer deaths or injuries from illegal or botched abortions. They are also more likely to have to resolve unwanted pregnancy through sterilization which is both permanent and government funded. But these policies are also racist in the implicit stereotypes on which they rest"(Petchesky, xix). These policies rest on such stereotypes like the belief that black procreation is the problem-that black women give birth to crack babies and socially inept children, (Roberts, 5) that black women and women of color in general are sexually promiscuous, loose, and irresponsible and that they are "always making babies and using taxpayers money to abort them" (Petchesky, xix). White women, especially those in the upper and middle classes never have to worry about playing out these stereotypes, about policies being made to stop t!

hem from having so many children and taxing the economy as well as ruining society. This is just another stratification in the reproductive rights movement and society at large.

Poor women of color, even though they bore the original burden of hazardous contraceptive tests, were denied, through various measures, access to oral contraception when it became available to the general public. Costs of producing and further developing the Pill were inflated by the unprecedented [and unnecessary] multi-tier testing requirements imposed on female contraception by the Food and Drug Administration (Djerassi The Pill 133). Expensive testing requirements coupled with sensational press coverage of the Nelson Hearings, held in 1970 to investigate whether people were properly informed of the Pill's alleged hazards, lead pharmaceutical companies to cut spending on contraceptive research and development (Djerassi The Politics 100) thus thwarting improvement of the Pill and further inflated oral contraceptive costs. Although a monthly cycle of contraceptives costs $0.15 to produce, consumer prices range from $15-35, and with the medical examinations requisite for se!

One woman who does include the experiences of the "other" is Roberts in her book "Killing the Black Body." Most accounts of the reproductive rights movement focus on the right to abortion, for example, but "Killing the Black Body" tells a different story

Some common words found in the essay are:
Education Welfare, Women's Struggle, Native American, , Angela Davis, Hyde Ammendment, La Operacion, Davis16 Women, Throughout American, CHECK CARD, birth control, reproductive rights, women color, white women, black women, poor women, rights movement, birth control movement, control movement, reproductive rights movement, la operacion, reproductive freedom, native american women, women women color, population control programs,
Approximate Word count = 7371
Approximate Pages = 29 (250 words per page double spaced)