Reproductive Justice is Disability Justice

OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas

July marks the thirty-second anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, as it’s better known—the landmark civil rights law that promised equal opportunity and economic security for Americans with disabilities. As we’ve talked about a lot on this show over the years, as important as it is to celebrate how far we’ve come in the decades since the ADA became part of the fabric of American life, every time we hit the month of July, it’s even more important to acknowledge how far will still have to go to achieve the as-yet unfulfilled promises of the ADA.

And that’s why this July, Off-Kilter is once again spending all month long having conversations with leaders from across the disability community. (Catch up with Part One and Part Two in our #ADA2022 series.)

To continue that series of conversations, as we all grapple with the road ahead in a post-Roe v. Wade world, this week, Off-Kilter dives into the intersection of reproductive justice and disability justice—and the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs decision on disabled women and people who can become pregnant—with two powerhouse advocates who are also speaking at an upcoming virtual event on “Bridging Reproductive Justice and Disability Justice” being hosted at The Century Foundation next week. Vilissa Thompson is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where her work focuses on the intersection of race, gender, and disability and she serves as co-director of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative; she is also the founder of advocacy organization Ramp Your Voice! And Laurie Bertram Roberts is the founder and executive director of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund (MRFF), a reproductive justice organization that reduces barriers for access to abortion care.

You can find part one and part two of Off-Kilter’s #ADA2022 series here and here.

For more:

• Find out more about and register for next week’s event, “Bridging Reproductive Justice and Disability Justice,” taking place on July 21, 1:00–2:00PM ET, by clicking here
• Read the Supreme Court’s Buck v. Bell decision from 1927, which set the legal precedent that disabled people can be forcibly sterilized—and here’s the TCF Disability Economic Justice Team’s statement on why overturning Roe is so devastating for the disability community
• Here’s the National Partnership for Women and Families analysis finding that 15 million women of color live in states that have already or are likely to overturn Roe
• Read more about how Laurie became “the abortion lady of Mississippi” in The Guardian
• Learn more about and support the work of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund
• Find and support your local abortion fund using this handy tool from the National Network of Abortion Funds