Content Catalog
Catch up on previous content that New Voices has published, including op-eds, newsletters, blogs, videos, and more. If you're not already signed up to receive our newsletters, scroll down to the bottom of the page to sign up and stay up to date with everything happening in the Reproductive Justice movement.
The State of Reproductive Justice
To give us some perspective on where the work stands, we sat down with our Executive Director, Beulah Osueke, and got her thoughts on the current state of Reproductive Justice, and what we can all do to show up in this moment.
QUESTION: How is New Voices understanding and naming this current moment — marked by global conflict, state violence, and deepening attacks on bodily autonomy — and why is it critical that RJ organizations speak clearly about these realities now?
ANSWER: We’re experiencing converging crises characterized by escalating global conflict, emboldened state violence, and intensifying attacks on Black women, queer and trans folks, and immigrants. These realities make our survival itself a political act. This isn’t hyperbole, nor are these isolated efforts. We’re witnessing a coordinated backlash against movements that affirm Black lives, families, and futures, from the exam room, to the ballot box, to our neighborhoods.
As a RJ organization, speaking plainly about these truths is core to the framework that Black women built for us. RJ demands the power to decide if, when, and how to parent; to raise children in safe, sustainable communities; and to live free from violence – all of which are impossible under war, heightened policing, and widening criminalization. In a climate of confusion and disinformation, communities turn to orgs like New Voices for clarity and guidance. We help people connect what they see on the news to what they experience in daily life, resist isolation, and organize for the resources and transformation needed to protect ourselves and our people.
ANSWER: We’re experiencing converging crises characterized by escalating global conflict, emboldened state violence, and intensifying attacks on Black women, queer and trans folks, and immigrants. These realities make our survival itself a political act. This isn’t hyperbole, nor are these isolated efforts. We’re witnessing a coordinated backlash against movements that affirm Black lives, families, and futures, from the exam room, to the ballot box, to our neighborhoods.
As a RJ organization, speaking plainly about these truths is core to the framework that Black women built for us. RJ demands the power to decide if, when, and how to parent; to raise children in safe, sustainable communities; and to live free from violence – all of which are impossible under war, heightened policing, and widening criminalization. In a climate of confusion and disinformation, communities turn to orgs like New Voices for clarity and guidance. We help people connect what they see on the news to what they experience in daily life, resist isolation, and organize for the resources and transformation needed to protect ourselves and our people.
QUESTION: In moments of deep political instability and harm, some organizations have chosen to focus primarily on service delivery. Why has New Voices chosen to double down on base-building, organizing, and political power as our core response?
ANSWER: We recognize the vital role of service delivery, and partner with leaders and organizations committed to meeting our communities’ urgent needs today, often standing in immense gaps left by government neglect. New Voices is doubling down on our base-building, community organizing, and growing Black political power because service delivery alone treats symptoms, not root causes.
Grounded in Black feminist traditions like Ella Baker’s call to confront the “root causes” of oppression, we focus on building collective power to transform unjust systems. Rather than solely relying on temporary aid, we invest in leadership development, narrative strategy, and political education that strengthen self-determination among those who engage with our work. While services provide immediate relief, base-building fosters sustained resistance, shared accountability, and power rooted in community rather than institutions. In moments of political crisis, our strategies cultivate enduring, organized power, honoring the RJ framework and advancing a vision of communal wellbeing built through collective action, not dependency.
ANSWER: We recognize the vital role of service delivery, and partner with leaders and organizations committed to meeting our communities’ urgent needs today, often standing in immense gaps left by government neglect. New Voices is doubling down on our base-building, community organizing, and growing Black political power because service delivery alone treats symptoms, not root causes.
Grounded in Black feminist traditions like Ella Baker’s call to confront the “root causes” of oppression, we focus on building collective power to transform unjust systems. Rather than solely relying on temporary aid, we invest in leadership development, narrative strategy, and political education that strengthen self-determination among those who engage with our work. While services provide immediate relief, base-building fosters sustained resistance, shared accountability, and power rooted in community rather than institutions. In moments of political crisis, our strategies cultivate enduring, organized power, honoring the RJ framework and advancing a vision of communal wellbeing built through collective action, not dependency.
QUESTION: What responsibility do Reproductive Justice organizations have to disrupt narratives that frame Black death, displacement, and suffering as inevitable or invisible?
ANSWER: RJ organizations bear the responsibility, and opportunity, to disrupt narratives that frame Black death, displacement, and suffering as inevitable or invisible (deserved), because these stories perpetuate dehumanization, and justify systemic violence of all people. RJ demands that we challenge the normalization of Black pain (seen in health disparities, the reproductive harms of incarceration, and state failures from the Global South to U.S. prisons), by centering communal liberation and collective wellbeing over individual choice.
This means exposing how current systems of power generate and weaponize Black invisibility. By transforming silence into action, as Audre Lorde urged, we affirm Black life as a promise of possibility, not a footnote of despair, building safety nets that reject fatalism.
ANSWER: RJ organizations bear the responsibility, and opportunity, to disrupt narratives that frame Black death, displacement, and suffering as inevitable or invisible (deserved), because these stories perpetuate dehumanization, and justify systemic violence of all people. RJ demands that we challenge the normalization of Black pain (seen in health disparities, the reproductive harms of incarceration, and state failures from the Global South to U.S. prisons), by centering communal liberation and collective wellbeing over individual choice.
This means exposing how current systems of power generate and weaponize Black invisibility. By transforming silence into action, as Audre Lorde urged, we affirm Black life as a promise of possibility, not a footnote of despair, building safety nets that reject fatalism.
QUESTION: How is New Voices balancing immediate response with long-term vision, as it builds toward 2026 and beyond?
ANSWER: New Voices bridges immediate response and long-term vision by addressing communities’ urgent needs today, while implementing power-building strategies for a better tomorrow. Through resource distribution and leadership fellowships, we provide care that affirms our dignity in real time. At the same time, we nurture enduring transformation through political education, community building, and strategies designed to dismantle intersecting systems of injustice.
Grounded in the RJ framework, our dual approach turns care into strategy, linking short-term acts of survival and communal provision with the long-term quest toward freedom in its truest sense. Supporting people now cultivates shared strength, while confronting oppressive systems and practicing radical imagination ensures that our futures expand with possibility, not shrink in constraint.
By centering Black leadership, relational accountability, and the collective genius of our communities, we’re working to transform crisis into sustained resistance. We choose solidarity over fleeting charity, illustrating that liberation is not only a daily discipline, but an inevitable promise when built and fought for together, in earnest.
ANSWER: New Voices bridges immediate response and long-term vision by addressing communities’ urgent needs today, while implementing power-building strategies for a better tomorrow. Through resource distribution and leadership fellowships, we provide care that affirms our dignity in real time. At the same time, we nurture enduring transformation through political education, community building, and strategies designed to dismantle intersecting systems of injustice.
Grounded in the RJ framework, our dual approach turns care into strategy, linking short-term acts of survival and communal provision with the long-term quest toward freedom in its truest sense. Supporting people now cultivates shared strength, while confronting oppressive systems and practicing radical imagination ensures that our futures expand with possibility, not shrink in constraint.
By centering Black leadership, relational accountability, and the collective genius of our communities, we’re working to transform crisis into sustained resistance. We choose solidarity over fleeting charity, illustrating that liberation is not only a daily discipline, but an inevitable promise when built and fought for together, in earnest.