In 1976 Loretta J. Ross received defective birth control. Her doctor knew about the defect prior to Ross’s appointment but prescribed it to her anyway. Ross experienced numerous health complications, including an infection that led to a forced hysterectomy.
When she found out about her doctor’s negligence, she was infuriated. But it was putting her experience alongside other Black women who had been historically erased and forcibly sterilized by the medical system that radicalized Ross. Ross sued her doctor and won. But her fight against the unjust medical system was far from over.
Ross became a reproductive rights activist. In 1994 Ross and other women of color designed the reproductive justice framework, which illuminates the inequity of reproductive care and rights in America based on race, environment, economics, and accessibility. A trailblazer in her field, Ross has held numerous leadership roles including co-founding SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.
With the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, anti-Black laws disguised as “pro-life” are targeting Black people and families.
Like Ross, let’s become so radicalized that we embody revolution in everything we do. The “spirit of revolution,” “the frontlines,” “the machete,” “the protest,” “the battle cry,” “the raised fist,” “the lunch counter,” are all in our DNA, passed down to us from those who have birthed us.