CLPP Conference Report Back: Getting Reconnected to the Movement
Having just returned from the 2010 CLPP conference, From Abortion to Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom, at Hampshire College this past weekend, my head is buzzing with new ideas, inspiring words, and the sense of being part of something much larger…a movement with an important history and a hopeful future—at least judging by the number of engaged young people attending and leading this major convening of reproductive justice activists. Workshops, trainings, and plenary panels spread across three days covered a wide range of issues—including economic justice, racial equality, freedom from violence, immigrant rights, climate justice, health care reform, and LGBTQ rights—all of which inform our understandings of what true reproductive justice will look like.
One of the most powerful aspects of the experience for me was connecting with people who do RJ work in many different capacities—as grassroots organizers and educators, as medical professionals and professional activists, as college students and as parents. Spending much of my time working with law students and lawyers, it’s all too easy to get used to speaking in certain ways and hearing the same kinds of voices in my daily conversations. Finding myself in a virtual sea of RJ activists over the weekend, I was struck by how many diverse ways people come at this work, informed by different kinds of oppression they have personally experienced and have born witness to. It’s so important to have the time and space to hear those experiences and be moved by them, all the while strengthening our critiques of systems of power and challenging ourselves to think in bold, new ways.
Some of the highlights for me included hearing about the organizing work going on in Georgia to defeat legislation that would criminalize sex- and race-selective abortions (proponents of which have waged a heinous advertising campaign that equates abortion in the African-American community with genocide); learning about the work of doulas in New York City and around the country to connect women with doula support throughout the entire spectrum of pregnancy, including when having an abortion or when putting a baby up for adoption; and engaging in a free-wheeling conversation about the politics of family creation, which raised fascinating issues of how caretaking and family relations develop outside the forms currently recognized by law. Feeling freshly engaged and inspired, I encourage everyone to seek out those spaces where we can learn from other people’s experiences and connect—or reconnect—to whatever it is that fires up our passion for creating a better, more just world.
For more coverage of the CLPP conference, check out feministing.com’s live-blogging here.
Liz Kukura