Reproductive Justice - Assignment Example

Prof’s Abortion and Wealth. Reproductive rights, or lack thereof, represent yet another dimension of the privilege of economic wealth, and the corresponding oppression of people who lack it. Harrowing tales about abortion disproportionately come from people of lower socioeconomic class, and this is not a coincidence. One case, for instance, in which a young girl was turned away from a doctor only to be taken to another who killed her through complications, shows how fundamentally wealth and reproductive rights are tied together (Goldberg).

Firstly, people with money will never be in danger of their reproductive rights being taken away: black markets will always spring up in order to cater to the demands of the wealthy (as currently exist for drugs, art, exotic animals and so on). If this young girl had been wealthy, regardless of the laws in her particular jurisdiction, she would have been able to access a safe abortion: she would fly somewhere in the world that gave them legally, or seek them illegally on the black market. Furthermore, those of limited means are more likely to need to exercise their reproductive rights.

The rich will never have to worry about feeding their infant or going hungry. Wealthy people have better access to child care and other services that make having a child less of a burden also. The fact is, reproductive rights are yet another thing that disproportionately impacts the poor – and efforts to remove them constitute little more than a continuing effort to remove rights from the poor that rich will have simply because of their wealth.