Intersectional Praxis in the Movement for Reproductive Justice: The Respect ABQ Women Campaign
Abstract
Intersectionality has been a capacious theoretical framework for understanding and enacting political praxis. Activists using an intersectional approach must cultivate flexibility and negotiate dynamics of difference and solidarity in relation to axes of power in local movement contexts. Recent scholarship on intersectional activisms raises questions about how intersectionality works in contemporary political struggles and whether there are particular strategies activists use to negotiate the dynamics of solidarity and difference in coalitions. This article contributes to the scholarship on intersectionality and political praxis through a case study of the Respect ABQ Women campaign against a municipal ballot initiative that would have banned abortions after twenty weeks in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I argue that constructing a campaign that shifted the narrative about abortion from pro-choice versus pro-life to one using a reproductive justice frame was key to defeating this ballot measure. Reproductive justice advocates used an innovative strengths-based, cross-sectoral approach that focused on mobilizing those who do not vote or who have reservations about abortion, especially Latino voters, and used storytelling as a methodology for communicating their electoral messages and engaging voters. My analysis is based on twelve interviews with participants in the Respect ABQ Women campaign and a review of campaign materials. The article concludes that the work by reproductive justice activists in the Respect ABQ Women campaign illustrates the praxis of intersectionality by engaging with those outside of traditional feminist politics and articulating the politics of place.