DBM Ep 74 A Conversation with Loretta Ross: Abortion, Activism, Reproductive Justice & Black Motherhood

By demblackmamas#BlackMamasMatter, #MeToo, Activism, Ancestors, Ancestral Linage, Birth, Black History, Black Lives Matter, Black Mamas Matter, Black mamas podcast, Black Maternal Health, Black Maternal Health Matters, Black Maternal Mental Health, Black Mental Health, Black Mom Podcast, Black Motherhood, Full Episode, Podcast, Politics & Electipns, reproductive freedom, reproductive justice
DBM Ep 74 Abortion, Activism, Reproductive Justice & Black Motherhood with Loretta Ross

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Dear Mama & Magic Makers, 

What if we told you there is an elder alive today who has the blueprint for this moment? Mamas & Magic Makers, if you don’t do nothing else before the end of the year, sit at the feet of an elder and LISTEN.  Keyword LISTEN.  Find an elder or make yourself available to one who is willing not only to share their wisdom but also to be vulnerable, sharing their mistakes, regrets, and healing journey.  

And this is why we’re grateful for our conversation with the brilliant, brave, and vulnerable Loretta Ross, one of the architects of the reproductive justice framework and one of the founders of the reproductive justice movement, about her new book, Abortion & Reproductive Justice: An Essential Guide for Resistance.  With sobering honesty, she shares how her personal journey mirrored the evolution of her role in the feminist movement and why, after retiring from the frontline, she’s chosen to focus on HOW we do the work.

This is the quietest we have ever been in an episode as Ms. Ross shares:

  • Motherhood, aging out of the front lines, and the necessity of matching radical analysis with radical love
  • How Black women’s care and solidarity have literally kept her alive
  • Fear of a Black Planet & how American feminism began with enslaved Black women 
  • Why we can’t afford for fights within movements to be fatal

PLUS, we give a praise report to Vanessa Baden Kelly, who wrote a Black ass episode of The Morning Show that touches on Black Maternal Health and Black women’s relationships in the workplace. In our Black Mama Say segment for this episode, where we put our twist on sayings from Black mamas, and the saying we’re twisting this episode is “Keep Livin.” 

SYLLABUS

To expand knowledge and combat misinformation and disinformation, we compile a list of references/sources for our listeners to dive into.  This list includes any books, videos, podcasts, etc. that we’ve mentioned in the episode or that will help you gain a well-informed perspective. ENJOY!

Responsive Reading/Church Announcements/Praise Reports/Prayer List Requests:

Mac & Cheese:

Loretta J. Ross is a Professor at Smith College in Northampton, MA in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender. She teaches courses on white supremacy, human rights, and calling in the calling out culture. She has taught at Hampshire College and Arizona State University. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College. She holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 by Arcadia University and a second honorary doctorate awarded by Smith College in 2013. She also has credits towards a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Emory University. She serves as a consultant for Smith College, collecting oral histories of feminists of color for the Sophia Smith Collection, which also contains her personal archives. Loretta is also a recipient of a MacArthur Fellow, Class of 2022, for her work as an advocate of Reproductive Justice and Human Rights, and an inductee into the 2024 National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Loretta’s activism began when she was tear-gassed at a demonstration as a first-year student at Howard University in 1970. As a teenager, she was involved in anti-apartheid and anti-gentrification activism in Washington, DC as a founding member of the DC Study Group. As part of a 50-year history of social justice activism, she retired from community organizing in 2012. She was the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005-2012 and co-created the theory of Reproductive Justice in 1994. 

Loretta was the National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004, March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history at the time, with 1.15 million participants. She founded the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia from 1996-2004.  She launched the Women of Color Program at the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the 1980s and served as the national program director of the National Black Women’s Health Project. Loretta was one of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center in the 1970s, launching her career by pioneering work on violence against women as the third Executive Director of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center. She is a member of the Women’s Media Center’s Progressive Women’s Voices. Watch Makers: Women Who Make America video. 

Loretta has co-written three books on reproductive justice: Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice in 2004; Reproductive Justice: An Introduction in March 2017; and Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique in October 2017, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel and her newest book Abortion & Reproductive Jusitce is available now!

Loretta is a rape survivor, raised her child born of incest, and is also a survivor of sterilization abuse at age 23. She is a model of how to survive and thrive despite the traumas that disproportionately affect low-income women of color. 

Loretta is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. 

Connect with Loretta Ross:

Important definitions and links to books, organizations, videos, articles, etc mentioned in this episode.

Black Mama Say: “Watch Yo Neck.”

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🗣️Engage: This is a conversation.  Speak back to us!  Share your thoughts about the episode using the hashtag #DemBlackMamas, DM us or email us at magic@demblackmamas.com.