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- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Reproductive Justice is defined as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children (or not), and parent children in safe and sustainable communities (Ross & Solinger, 2017). Reproductive politics in settler nations like the United States are based on gendered, sexualized, and racialized acts of oppression (Gurr, 2014). Among the Indigenous communities in New Mexico, reproductive sovereignty is synonymous with tribal sovereignty and is intimately tied to connections to their land base. A central question guides this work: How have the rules of tribal enrollment impacted dating, child rearing, and family structures within Pueblo communities? Pueblo communities have been subject to centuries of settler colonial rule, then under the Spanish, Mexican, and currently U.S. jurisdictions, each of which shaped enrollment policies. Those policies reflect external normative systems (the Catholic church) and governmental structures (tribal constitutions based on the U.S. model), and membership rules based on settler notions of blood quantum. In particular, strict blood quantum rules threaten the continuity of families, land tenure systems, and Native nations themselves. Blood quantum and other forms of tribal enrollment practices must be understood as reproductive justice issues. This research draws on 89 interviews with 24 Pueblo people (15 women, 5 men, 4 non-binary) over the span of 11 months in 2021. Interviewees represent the Pueblos of Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Pojoaque, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, Taos, and Zuni. This research found that Pueblo people conceptualize the term “reproductive nation building” in two ways: (1) they correlate tribal enrollment requirements with reproductive expectations placed on Pueblo women, and (2) Pueblo people feel a sense of belonging that transcends enrollment via concepts such as responsibility, accountability, permission, and protocol. Current tribal enrollment practices (especially blood quantum and lineal descent) significantly impact Pueblo women’s reproductive choices. Both positive and negative impacts have generational legacies that hold long-lasting implications for the future of tribal nations. Reimagining enrollment is necessary to reclaim kinship, clanship, and other forms of belonging that have been used within Pueblo communities since time immemorial.
ContributorsLucero, Danielle Dominique (Author) / Brayboy, Bryan M (Thesis advisor) / Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Thesis advisor) / Guevarra, Rudy (Committee member) / Shabazz, Rashad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
While abortion is a vital reproductive right, its absence is not the only threat to bodily autonomy. This thesis utilizes a reproductive justice lens to showcase how religion and politics have contributed to centering a ‘choice’ binary that limits a more nuanced understanding of reproductive freedom. This has led to the dominance of the abortion narrative, which overshadows discussions on other forms of reproductive healthcare. Religion and politics have also cultivated a pro-birth – rather than pro-life – approach to women’s reproductive health. This is particularly true in Oklahoma, where no previous research has been conducted on women’s broader reproductive healthcare experiences – consequently, this research turns to women and amplifies their voices to better understand the current state of reproductive healthcare. Participant survey responses were analyzed in the areas of contraception, abortion, prenatal care, and postnatal care. A t-test shows that there is not a statistically significant difference in care quality between birth and non-birth categories. However, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test results do reveal that prenatal care in Oklahoma is rated much more highly than other forms of reproductive healthcare, and with much less variation than ratings in other categories. Additional findings reveal that more pain management is needed during intrauterine device (IUD) insertion, that finances are a major barrier to all forms of reproductive healthcare, and that sterilization is much more difficult to obtain than any other form of contraception. The study concludes that the experiences of respondents are reflective of a pro-birth approach to reproduction and motherhood. Findings from this research broaden existing scholarship on reproductive health and justice by contributing new knowledge that is relevant to women inside and outside of Oklahoma. The study recommends that additional research should be conducted to improve women’s reproductive healthcare in Oklahoma and beyond, particularly in a post-Roe world.
ContributorsStewart, Alexandra Noelle (Author) / Goksel, Nisa (Thesis advisor) / Comstock, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Funk, Kendall (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The stillbirth of a wanted baby is a devastating and life altering experience that happens more than 26,000 times each year in the United States, but the impacts and implications of this loss on families is rarely discussed in public spaces. While another kind of pregnancy ending, abortion, dominates political discourse about reproduction, the absence of talk about stillbirth prevention or support in those same contexts is worthy of further investigation. This project explores stillbirth as a communication phenomenon and draws upon narrative, performance and rhetorical articulations of testimony to extend our understanding of how narratives of stillbirth circulate in current conditions of discourse. A model for viewing how dominant and counter narratives circulate is explained (Narrative Loop Model) and a new model for illuminating the unique functions of testimony is given (Testimonial Loop Model). This dissertation employs performance and rhetorical methods to explore testimonies of stillbirth, both naturally occurring and solicited through interviews, in order to create several performance texts that put pregnancy-ending narratives in conversation with each other on stage. Analysis of the performance text and choices, as well as reflection on the embodied performance experience and member checking, yielded several findings. The discovery of somatic sentience and its influence on performance ethnography is discussed. Themes of relationality and temporality were found in the performance of testimonies of stillbirth. The implications of these findings add to the communication discipline’s understanding of how and why stillbirth testimony may circulate, its impact on conditions of discourse for pregnancy ending and its potential use as/in intervention, support, and advocacy. Ethical considerations and limitations are addressed.
ContributorsPullen, Suzanne (Author) / Brouwer, Daniel C (Thesis advisor) / Corey, Frederick C. (Thesis advisor) / Lederman, Linda (Committee member) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
An intersectional analysis of sex education in the U.S. reveals a need for a more nuanced and community-based approach to sexuality education. A Reproductive Justice framed sexuality education program attends to the needs and desires expressed by a community, while interrogating and resisting the interlocking systems of power that work to uphold white patriarchy and white supremacy. Reproductive Justice sexuality education is socially transformational when it centers student creation and community participation. Instead of risk prevention and rights-based sex education programs that often perpetuate oppressive structures and erase students' lived experiences, student-centered sexuality education with a Reproductive Justice framework allows for participants to feel safe and valued. This re/imagining of sex education also allows for pleasure instead of shame to be a product of sexuality exploration. Key words: Reproductive Justice, Sexuality Education, K-12 Sex Education, Community Created Curriculum, Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Intersectionality
ContributorsFarrell, Ashley (Author) / Swadener, Elizabeth B (Thesis advisor) / Sandlin, Jennifer (Committee member) / Linton, Mellissa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022