Reproductive Rights Oral History Project
Over the course of the 1970s-1990s, women’s health activists around the world mobilized across borders to push for an international “reproductive rights” paradigm, including the right to bodily autonomy; the right to decide, if, when and how often to reproduce; freedom from coercive sterilizations and obstetric violence; and access to safe and affordable contraceptive, pre-natal, childbirth, post-natal, and sexual health services. They formed organizations, published pamphlets, opened clinics, and lobbied policymakers to move past the dominant “population control program” and embed all reproductive health care in women-centered, human-rights based approaches. They played a powerful role in overturning restrictive laws and coercive programs in many countries, while also helping establish reproductive rights as an international norm through the Cairo Program of Action, adopted by 179 countries at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994.
The Reproductive Rights Oral History Project (RROHP) traces the life histories of several activists involved in these movements, including the initiators of the “Women’s Declaration on Population Policies” published in 1992 and organizers of the “Rio Conference on Reproductive Health and Justice” held in January 1994 on the eve of the ICPD. The interviews provide material of broad relevance to those interested in histories of population control, reproductive rights, feminism, global health, development, and international activism more broadly.
Oral histories were collected by Nicole Bourbonnais, Associate Professor of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute.
Adetoun Ilumoka | Amparo Claro | Marge Berer
Peggy Antrobus | Rosalind Petchesky | T.K. Sundari Ravindran | Gita Sen | Jane Cottingham