Abortion: the termination of a pregnancy. It can occur spontaneously, also known as a miscarriage, or it may occur as a result of taking medication (a medication abortion or the abortion pill) or undergoing a procedure (a surgical abortion or in-clinic abortion).
Black Feminism: a multifaceted, secular intellectual framework and movement that centers on the experiences and struggles of Black women, acknowledging the intersectionality of race, gender, and class in shaping their identities and social positions. It not only addresses gender-based oppression but also recognizes the compounded effects of racism and sexism faced by Black women within various social, political, and economic contexts. Black feminism shares features with but differs in key ways from Womanism. Both inform the development of Reproductive Justice. (Source: Oxford Review; For more elaboration, see Oxford Review https://oxford-review.com/the-oxford-review-dei-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-dictionary/black-feminism-definition-and-explanation/)
Culture: the grouping of customary and shared beliefs, social forms, attitudes, values, goals, norms, morality, and way of life within a society or social sub-group. Continuation of a culture depends upon the transmission of knowledge to and socialization of succeeding generations. (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Culture https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture#:~:text=%3A%20the%20customary%20beliefs%2C%20social%20forms,popular%20culture)
Culture Change: the modification of a society through innovation, invention, discovery, or contact with other societies. Culture change is marked by shifts in attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors. (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Cultural Change https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultural%20change)
Dominant Culture: a culture that is widely accepted, “mainstream,” powerful in its societal influence, highly visible, and usually exclusionary of aspects of culture associated with minority or marginalized groups. Dominant culture often legitimates and perpetuates inequalities between social groups. (Source: Easy Sociology https://easysociology.com/sociology-of-culture/understanding-dominant-culture-and-its-implications/#)
Economic Exploitation (also Poverty): exploitation refers to making use of others’ labor, unfairly for one’s own advantage; poverty is the state of one who lacks an adequate amount of money or material possessions for well-being and social acceptance. Systemic causes include corporate profit maximization to keep wages low; stagnant wages, tax policies that privilege the wealthy, lack of affordable housing and childcare, health insurance gaps, and too few necessary social services. These systemic issues lead to increased inequality, housing crises, and poor health outcomes, especially for women of color and mothers, who are more likely to be poor than men. (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Poverty https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poverty)
Emotionally Attracted To: romantic or emotional orientation, as distinguished from sexual or physical orientation. It can be impacted by a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, gender identity, gender expression/presentation, and sex assigned at birth. There are also other types of attraction related to gender, such as aesthetical, platonic and more. (Source: Trans Student Educational Resources, 2015. “The Gender Unicorn.” http://www.transstudent.org/gender.)
Gender: the socially constructed roles, behaviors, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender-diverse people. It influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact, and how they are treated. The distribution of power and resources in society is often influenced by dominant ideas about gender. (Source: Canadian Institutes of Health Research https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/48642.html) For a discussion of historical and currently unsettled usages of “sex” and “gender,” see Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Sex https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sex.
Gender Expression/Presentation: the physical manifestation of one’s gender identity through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body shape, etc. Many transgender people seek to make their gender expression (how they look) match their gender identity (who they are), rather than the gender expression typically associated with their sex assigned at birth. (Source: Trans Student Educational Resources, 2015. “The Gender Unicorn.” http://www.transstudent.org/gender.)
Gender Identity: one’s internal sense of self and gender, whether that is man, woman, neither, or some combination of both. Gender identity is not confined to a binary (girl/woman, boy/man). It is not static; it exists along a continuum and can change over time. Unlike gender expression, gender identity is not outwardly visible to others. For most people, gender identity aligns with the identity typically associated with sex assigned at birth. For transgender people, gender identity differs in varying degrees from the sex assigned at birth. (Sources: NPR https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/996319297/gender-identity-pronouns-expression-guide-lgbtq and Canadian Institutes of Health Research https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/48642.html)
Intersectionality: the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups. Though first articulated in this specific form by Kimberlé Crenshaw in a 1989 article, it builds on earlier concepts, such as the 1982 observation from Audre Lorde that “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” (Source: University of Chicago Legal Forum https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf and University of Chicago Illinois Women’s Leadership and Resource Center https://wlrc.uic.edu/news-stories/we-do-not-live-single-issue-lives/)
Intersex: an umbrella term used to describe people with differences in reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, or hormones that don’t fit typical two ways that human bodies develop. Intersex can refer to a number of natural variations in genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, or chromosomes, but it is not the same as being nonbinary or transgender, which are terms related to gender identity. Being intersex may be evident at birth, childhood, later in adulthood, or never. Intersex people often face shame—or are forced or coerced into changing their bodies, usually at a very young age. Most surgeries to change intersex traits happen in infancy. Being intersex isn’t a disorder, disease, or condition. The I in LGBTQIA+ stands for Intersex. (Sources: InterACT: https://interactadvocates.org/faq/#definition Cleveland Clinic https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/16324-intersex and NPR.org https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/996319297/gender-identity-pronouns-expression-guide-lgbtq#intersex)
Liberation Theology: a faith-based belief in a vision of justice that a divine will, human goodness, and/or the ground of being, etc. wants for all humanity. Such a vision is typically paired with a moral critique of the injustices that cause great suffering. Liberation Theology was developed by faith leaders and scholars in Latin America in the mid 20th century and has expanded across the world and into the U.S. This way of rereading sacred texts through the eyes of the exploited quickly spread to other marginalized groups and led to the development of Black theology; feminist, womanist, and mujerista theologies; and queer theologies. Many may be primarily familiar with the versions that come out of the Christian tradition, but Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and others have similar religious visions, as it is a human yearning to be free from oppression.
Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC): the most effective form of reversible birth control. There are two types of LARCs, IUDs and implants. IUDs are inserted into your uterus, and implants are inserted into your arm. They can prevent pregnancy for several years. LARCs can be integral to reproductive self-determination. However, a major concern among Reproductive Justice advocates is the coercion by governments and others in power of LARC use among marginalized people. (Sources: Cleveland Clinic https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/23269-larc and National Library of Medicine https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10437997/)
Moral Agency: a capacity for ethical action associated with a “moral agent,” who is a person acting according to the demands of morality. Conditions of moral agency are that agents should have: 1. an enduring self with free will and an inner life; 2. understanding of the relevant facts as well as moral understanding; and 3. moral sentiments, such as capacity for remorse and concern for others. (Source: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/moral-agents/v-1) (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Moral Authority https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moral%20authority and Cambridge Dictionary – Authority https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/authority)
Most Marginalized: Marginalized groups often have limited opportunities to influence the institutions and policies that determine their lives. Women and girls, rural dwellers, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, and the LGBTQIA+ community are among those systematically excluded by barriers that are not purely economic, but political, social, and cultural as well. The “most marginalized” tend to be those who experience multiple, intersecting forms of marginalization. (Source: United Nations Development Programme https://hdr.undp.org/content/worlds-most-marginalized-still-left-behind-global-development-priorities-undp-report)
Patriarchy: the dominance by male family heads over their kin. More broadly, patriarchy means the manifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in the family and the extension of that pattern of male dominance over women in society in general. It implies that men generally hold power in all the important institutions of society and that women are generally deprived of access to such power. It does not imply that women are either totally powerless or totally deprived of rights, influence, and resources. Even in contemporary society, systemic male dominance at the aggregate level remains, despite the fact that a significant number of women hold power and influence. Further, as the Equal Rights Amendment has yet to be officially certified, and as ongoing reproductive oppression via legislation makes clear, sex/gender inequality is still a feature of core U.S. systems. Gender and sexuality are strictly defined and policed in ways that support the patriarchal system overall, meaning that both sexism and LGBTQ+ oppression are bound together. (Source: The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner p. 238-239)
Physically Attracted To: sexual or physical orientation, as distinguished from romantic or emotional orientation. It can be impacted by a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, gender identity, gender expression/presentation, and sex assigned at birth. There are also other types of attraction related to gender, such as aesthetical, platonic, and more. (Source: Trans Student Educational Resources, 2015. “The Gender Unicorn.” http://www.transstudent.org/gender.)
Race: any one of the groups that humans are often divided into based on physical traits regarded as common among people of shared ancestry, notably skin color. However, “race” is not actually real. There is more genetic variation within racial groupings than between them, meaning there is nothing below superficial external differences to justify such groupings of humans. Rather, race is a social construct that was constructed as a hierarchical human-grouping system, generating racial classifications to identify, distinguish and marginalize some groups and privilege others across nations, regions and the world. However, while “race” is not real, racism is, which means racially identified groups must often combat oppression from the standpoint of their categorization. (Sources: Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Race https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/race and National Human Genome Research Institute https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Race)
Racism: a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race; behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief: racial discrimination or prejudice; the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another. (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Racism https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism)
Reproductive Dignity: is a term foregrounded by SACReD to refer to our belief that everyone should be able to make decisions, including all reproductive decisions, with dignity throughout life. All humans are endowed with dignity by our creator or source of being, and that value is shared across religious traditions. We are taught to respect the dignity of every human being, which includes respecting their moral agency when making reproductive decisions.
Reproductive Freedom: is an umbrella term sometimes used to refer to the overall goal of movements for Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, and Reproductive Justice. The three movement frameworks and agendas are not interchangeable. When the goals of all the frameworks are achieved, reproductive freedom will be the outcome. (Source: https://www.latinainstitute.org/resource/what-is-the-difference-between-reproductive-health-rights-and-justice/)
Reproductive Health – focuses on providing direct services to individuals. Reproductive health organizations and advocates are focused on improving and expanding services, research, and access to safe, medically appropriate reproductive health services. (Source: National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice https://www.latinainstitute.org/resource/what-is-the-difference-between-reproductive-health-rights-and-justice/)
Reproductive In-Justice: violation of the tenets of Reproductive Justice. These are particular injustices that impact reproductive decision-making and often intersect with systemic impacts of white supremacy, poverty, sexism, and other forms of oppression. Specifically, abortion bans, inaccessibility of birth control and maternity care, low wages, racist neighborhood policing, pollution, lack of affordable childcare, and many more problems are all concerns of RJ because they negatively impact bodily autonomy, reproductive health, and family well-being. Throughout this curriculum reproductive in-justice is stylized this way to emphasize the contrast with the tenets of Reproductive Justice.
Reproductive Justice (RJ): is defined by SisterSong as the human right to
- Maintain personal bodily autonomy
- Have children
- Not have children, and
- Parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.
Informed by Indigenous women leaders, 12 Black women developed the Reproductive Justice framework 1994 in Chicago. They recognized the need for a broad, intersectional agenda that drew upon Reproductive Rights, Social Justice, and Human Rights frameworks viewed through the lens of Black feminism. The Reproductive Justice movement emphasizes human rights, access to care and resources beyond choice, and is not solely focused on abortion. RJ leaders uplift the needs of the most marginalized women, families, and communities, especially women of color and transgender people. Reproductive Justice is not a euphemism for abortion. (Source: SisterSong https://www.sistersong.net/reproductive-justice)
Reproductive Rights – focuses on protecting the legal rights to reproductive healthcare services with a focus on keeping abortion legal and increasing access to family planning services. Reproductive rights organizations and advocates focus on the courts, the laws, and advocacy. (Source: National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice https://www.latinainstitute.org/resource/what-is-the-difference-between-reproductive-health-rights-and-justice/)
Sex: a set of biological attributes in humans and animals. It is primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, gene expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy. Sex also refers to activities between people involving the sexual organs. (Sources: Cambridge Dictionary – Sex https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/sex Canadian Institutes of Health Research https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/48642.html)
Sex Assigned at Birth or Birth Assigned Sex: the assignment and classification of an individual as male, female, or intersex based on external genital attributes observed at the time of birth. This assignment is typically determined by medical professionals and recorded on the individual’s birth certificate. It is important to underscore that sex assigned at birth is based on physical characteristics and does not necessarily align with an individual’s gender identity or expression. Internal bodily complexities – chromosomal, hormonal, organ formation, etc. – can also contradict simple binary assignments. Chromosomes are frequently used to determine sex from prenatal karyotyping (although not as often as genitalia). Chromosomes do not always determine genitalia, sex, or gender. Due to conflicting and unsettled usages of “sex” and “gender,” and because usage of “sex” can be problematic in transphobic discourse, many prefer to use “sex assigned at birth” to “sex.” (Sources: Oxford Review – Birth Assigned Sex https://oxford-review.com/the-oxford-review-dei-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-dictionary/birth-assigned-sex-definition-and-explanation/ and Trans Student Educational Resources, 2015. “The Gender Unicorn.” http://www.transstudent.org/gender.)
Sexism: the ideology of male supremacy/superiority and of beliefs that support and sustain it. Sexism and patriarchy mutually reinforce one another. Sexism can still exist in societies where official, institutionalized patriarchy has been abolished. Such an ideology leads to prejudice or discrimination based on sex, as well as behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex. Within patriarchy, sexism disadvantages women and all who deviate from patriarchal gender and sexuality norms. (Sources: The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner p. 240-241 chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://tildesites.bowdoin.edu/~smcmahon/courses/hist246/readingguide/files/lerner_definitions.pdf and Merriam–Webster Dictionary – Sexism https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sexism).
Sexuality: a personal identifier that best describes who you may be attracted to sexually, emotionally, intellectually, or romantically at that current period of time. Some common terms that are associated with sexuality are lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, and many different identities as well. (Princeton University Gender Sexuality Resource Center https://www.gsrc.princeton.edu/gender-sex-and-sexuality)
Sexual Orientation: the fact of someone being sexually or romantically attracted to people of a particular gender, or more than one gender. (Source: Cambridge Dictionary – Sexual Orientation https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/sexual-orientation)
Socialization: the process through which group members acquire the values, habits, and attitudes of the culture. This process occurs as authority figures, leaders, role models, and peers within families, schools, religious institutions, workplaces, government institutions, neighborhoods, and the media guide people’s cognitive learning, scripts for moral behavior, storytelling, and all manner of normative practices. (Source: Merriam–Webster Dictionary – Socialization https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialization)
Transformation/Transform: implies a major change in form, nature, or function. It is an act, process, or instance of being changed in composition or structure; an act, process, or instance of changing the outward form of appearance of; and/or an act, process, or instance of changing in character or condition. (Source: Merriam–Webster Dictionary – Transformation and Transform https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transformation and https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transform)
White Christian Nationalism – the dangerous belief that America is – and must remain – a Christian nation founded for its white Christian inhabitants and that our laws and policies must reflect this. Christian Nationalists deny the separation of church and state promised by our Constitution, and they oppose equality for people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, and the nonreligious. White Christian Nationalism is also a political movement that seeks to topple our democracy by undermining church-state separation and declaring America a “Christian nation.” (Source: Americans United for Separation of Church and State https://www.au.org/how-we-protect-religious-freedom/issues/white-christian-nationalism/)
White Christian Supremacy – the relationship formed when Christianity is forced to serve systems of power and domination, particularly to uphold white supremacy and elevate Christianity above all other religions or cultures. It often creates a shared sense of communal life rhythm because of shared holidays like Christmas and Easter as well as rites of passage such as baptism, marriage, and first communion. The Bible and church doctrine are the tools used most often to promote certain characteristics such as gender and sexual orientation as God-given and morally superior, which makes the marginalization of all others who do not share those characteristics seem acceptable. Ongoing legacies of colonization, enslavement, and genocide around the world are deeply entangled with Christian Supremacy. Politically, Christianity is often contorted to condone the inequitable distribution of natural resources and access to basic necessities. (Source: SoulForce What is Christian Supremacy? https://soulforce.org/download/what-is-christian-supremacy/?wpdmdl=391&_wpdmkey=67e0ad877734d)
White Savior Complex – attitudes held by “white people” (see Race), who see themselves as helping or defending people of color but whose actions are patronizing, performative, or intrusive. These attitudes imply a racist belief that people of color are not equally human or capable of self-determination and agency. A focus on saving “others” also tends to deflect from a systemic analysis. Such attitudes and actions disempower people of color and make true partnership and solidarity more difficult. (Source: Merriam–Webster Dictionary – White Savior https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20savior)
White Supremacy – the belief that “races” exist (see Race), and that the white race is inherently superior to other races, thus, white people should have control over people of other races. This belief can be internalized by those identified as “non-white,” which means this ideology is perpetuated by people belonging to many ethnic groups. White supremacy is also the social, economic, and political systems that collectively enable white people to maintain power over people of other races. (Source: Merriam–Webster Dictionary – White Supremacy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20supremacy)
Womanism: is a social change perspective rooted in Black women’s and other women of color’s everyday experiences and everyday methods of problem-solving in everyday spaces, extended to the problem of ending all forms of oppression for all people, restoring the balance between people and the environment/nature, and reconciling human life with the spiritual dimension. (Source: The Womanist Working Collective https://www.womanistworkingcollective.org/womanist)
Womanist Theology: a form of reflection that places the religious and moral perspectives of Black women at the center of its method. Issues of class, gender (including sex, sexism, sexuality, and sexual exploitation), and race are seen as theological problems. Womanist theology takes old (traditional) religious language and symbols and gives them new (more diverse and complex) meaning. This form of theological reflection cannot be termed “womanist” simply because the subject is Black women’s religious experiences. The key for womanist theology is the use of an interstructured analysis employing class, gender, and race. This kind of analysis is both descriptive (an analysis and sociohistorical perspective of Black life and Black religious worldviews) and prescriptive (offering suggestions for the eradication of oppression in the lives of African Americans and, by extension, the rest of humanity and creation). (Source: Emilie M. Townes https://irbe.library.vanderbilt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/b2aab524-85e7-488d-9302-e9b3d4e55bb4/content#:~:text=WOMANIST%20THEOLOGY%20is%20a%20form,rest%20of%20humanity%20and%20creation)