Creator: Eimeel Castillo
Duration: 3 class periods
Published: Winter 2021
Overview
In this lesson plan, students will learn that decisions about sexual and reproductive health that seem uniquely personal respond to larger social arrangements and will acknowledge that feminist perspectives around the world emphasize the linkages between the defense of reproductive rights and achieving social justice using the example of debates and legislation around abortion.
Keywords: Bodily Experience, Reproductive Health, Social Justice, Reproductive Justice, Abortion, Human Rights
Country sites: United States, India, Nicaragua, Russia, China, Brazil, Poland, Nigeria
Learning Objectives
- Explore the connection between personal experiences of sexual and reproductive health with determining social conditions shaping people’s ability to make decisions about their health.
- Acknowledge varied reproductive health situations of women around the world through the perspectives of feminist activists.
- Define and employ the reproductive justice framework to render visible the connection between systemic oppression and the struggle for women’s human rights.
- Evaluate the usefulness of the concept of reproductive justice by analyzing how feminist activists articulate and defend the right to abortion in different geographical contexts.
Teaching Podcast
Resources
Activities
Activity One: The Personal is Political This activity encourages students to reflect on their own bodily experiences as important sites for creating knowledge about their sexual and reproductive health. The objective is to explore how these intimate experiences are linked to social forces that eventually influence their knowledge and decisions about their health. This activity consists of two components and includes a freewriting exercise and a pair-share discussion. Duration: 40 minutes | Download Materials |
Activity Two: Reproductive Rights and Social Justice This activity encourages students to think critically about reproductive rights feminist activism through the concept of reproductive justice. Students will connect their own, or familiar, lived experiences with diverse feminist perspectives on reproductive rights and social justice. This activity consists of one thinking routine that incorporates analysis of interview excerpts, a video presentation and a final debrief. Duration: 60 minutes | Download Materials |
Activity Three: Abortion Laws Around the World This activity encourages students to compare the debates around legislation regarding abortion around the world from the point of views of feminist activists. The goal is to discuss and reflect on the different contexts in which conversations and activism concerning abortion takes place in diverse regions. The idea is to help students transcend the pro-choice/pro-life debate and center women’s experiences and well-being. Duration: 50 minutes | Download Materials |
Assessment: Beyond the Choice This assignment encourages students to think critically about discourses on women’s reproductive rights using a reproductive justice approach that insists on moving out of the pro-choice pro-life dichotomy. Students will apply their knowledge by analyzing one campaign addressing women’s reproductive rights in a 2-page paper. | Download Materials |
