are now decided by state and local laws, meaning some women will have to travel to obtain a legal abortion or worry of facing criminal charges. an article from the kaiser family foundation stated that more than half of abortions are among women of color based on available data. in 2019, four out of ten of abortions were among black women (38%), one-third were among white women (33%), one in five among hispanic women (21%), and 7% among women of other racial and ethnic groups. the lack of access to health care is one reason why the abortion rate for women of color is higher than white women. white women were also reported to have more access to contraceptives than minorities at 69% versus black women at 61%. the high volume of planned parenthood facilities in or near minority communities has also been reported as a cause for women of color receiving the most abortions. the center for urban renewal and education produced a policy report in 2015 stating, “a recent study released by protecting black life, an outreach of life issues institute concluded that, “79% of planned parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are strategically located within walking distance of african and/or hispanic communities.” organizations as the abortion debate has continued, there has been a surge of black pro-life groups. these organizations believe that the womb is the "most dangerous place for an african-american child." similar to the views of marcus garvey, black anti-abortionists view the abortion movement as an attack on the african-american community as a form of genocide and a push for eugenics. planned parenthood and the actions of founder margaret sanger have become a focal point for these movements, believing their efforts continue with the goal of harming black women. black women account for over 28% of abortions annually, more than any other racial demographic. this statistic accounts for the reality that african-american women also experience high rates of unplanned pregnancy, largely due to a lack of access to comprehensive reproductive care and access to control. reproductive justice movement reproductive justice, a framework created by the women of african descent for reproductive justice, emerged in 1994 to catalyze a national movement that prioritized the needs of marginalized women, their families, and their communities. reproductive justice is the "human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities." this framework transcends the argument of choice that the women's rights, reproductive rights, and reproductive health movements emphasized, as these movements represent the needs of middle class and wealthy white women. reproductive justice deems access to comprehensive reproductive care as essential. this includes the right to and equitable access to safe abortion as well as access to contraceptives, sexual education, sti prevention and care, and other ways to support families. black nationalist parties background black nationalist parties in the late 1960s and early 1970s tended to view the use of contraceptives in black populations was at best, an ill-conceived public health measure, and at worst a front for a conspiracy of black genocide. for the most part, male-dominated black nationalists were opposed to the promotion of personal fertility control and protested against government-funded family planners who they viewed to be putting forth an agenda of black population control. much of the opposition to fertility control was sparked by the sterilization of minnie lee and mary alice in 1973. the sisters received federally funded birth control grants from the office of economic opportunity (oeo). at the montgomery family planning clinic, minnie lee and mary alice, fourteen and seventeen years old at the time respectively, both underwent surgical sterilization without informed consent. mrs relf, their mother was unable to read and was coerced into signing parental consent forms without being able to understand the documents. additionally, both sisters were forced by clinic staff to sign false documents indicating that they were over twenty-one. the family later filed a complaint through the southern poverty law center citing that the treatment of the sisters at the clinic was abusive and coercive because 1) neither the mother nor her daughters gave any indication of wanting to undergo surgical sterilization, 2) neither mother nor daughters met with the physician who would perform the operation before the fact, and 3) neither mother nor daughters received information about the consequences of tubal sterilization from a physician or member of the clinic staff. the relf case prompted many other african-american, native-american, and latina women to come forth with similar stories of coercion. in light of this case, many black nationalist groups came to conflate any birth control movement with a larger conspiracy of black population control. the most vocal of these black nationalist groups were the black panthers and the nation of islam. these two organizations argued that white government family planners posed a threat to the black population by offering them birth control without other health care measures, namely, preventive medicine and hospitals, pre-and postnatal care, nutritional advice, and dentistry. they argued that birth control services remained harmful without adequate solutions to health care problems related to poverty. additionally, other black groups and black scholars vocally criticized the targeting of poor black communities as centers for population control. ron walters, chairman of the department of political science at howard university, a historically black university, was one of the most outspoken critics of population control aimed at black families. he advocated that black communities ought to be responsible for defining their own fertility programs and birth control policies. members of the urban league, naacp, and the southern christian leadership conference, likewise criticized birth control programs throughout the 1960s. a particular point of contention was the lack of minority representation in planned parenthood. however, as the feminist message of the right to abortion and birth control began to become more widespread and as black feminists became more vocal in advocating for birth control access, the views of many black nationalist parties began to adapt. by the mid-1970s, the federal government had reduced funding for fertility control and family planning programs were viewed as less favorable after roe v. wade, the landmark supreme court abortion case. additionally, vocal criticism of federal family planning programs leads the government to refashion its rhetoric to be less targeted toward poor black communities. given this context, groups such as the black panther's expanded their emphasis on total health care to include birth control and abortion when voluntarily chosen. black panther party since the foundation of the black panther party in 1966, the organization rejected all forms of reproductive control, claiming that governmentally regulated reproductive control was genocidal for black people. the black panthers and the black liberation army, the military wing of the party, believed that armed black revolution against white supremacy was possible. they saw targeted birth control as part of a governmental plot to reduce the number of black people in the united states, to prevent such a revolution. their suspicious view of birth control changed throughout the 1970s. in 1971, women in the party pushed back against an anti-birth control position on the basis that large families are difficult to support. they argued that this difficulty would make it harder for both men and women to participate politically. in 1974. elaine brown took over leadership of the party and actively placed other female members in leadership positions. the fbi's crackdown in the black power movement in the 1970s led to the arrest and/or death of many male party leaders, further increasing the influence of women in the party. though male party leadership was reasserted by founder huey p. newton in 1976, brown's tenure as leader of the party from 1974 to 1976 significantly changed the party's stance on birth control policies and other feminist causes. in particular, the party educated black women on the dangers of forced sterilization and published articles on documented cases of coerced sterilization by the state. in an article published by the committee to end sterilization abuse, the black panthers asserted that as high as 20% of black women in the united states had been sterilized. additionally, the party shifted their rhetoric to emphasize the importance of health care and legal abortion in black communities. nation of islam the nation of islam, a black political and religious movement founded in the 1930s, was among the first to claim that fertility control was a form of genocide. in the 1960s, the group drew parallels between what they saw as genocidal population control in the united states and population control policies in third-world countries. while they maintained a hardline approach to birth control and abortion, the group also pushed for expanded health care for black communities and greater structural solutions to health problems linked to poverty. sterilization early 1900s the widespread practice of female sterilization began in the early 1900s. throughout the 20th century, a majority of states passed laws allowing sterilization, and even requiring it in prescribed circumstances. the first sterilization statutes were passed in indiana in 1907, and the last was passed in georgia in 1970. indiana's law allowed the "prevention of the procreation of, confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists". the supreme court of indiana declared this statute unconstitutional in 1921, but a similar law passed in 1927 was ruled constitutional. over the next fifty years, laws resembling indiana's were passed in 30 different states. these policies legalized forced sterilization for certain groups based on race and class, many of which were already marginalized. the landmark supreme court case buck v. bell (1927) upheld a state's right to forcibly sterilize a person considered unfit to procreate. as early scientific genetic theories were emerging, eugenics (and thus sterilization) became an accepted way of protecting society from the offspring of those individuals deemed lesser than or dangerous to society—the poor, the disabled, the mentally ill, and particularly, people of color. several states, most notably north carolina, set up eugenics boards during this time period to review petitions from government and private agencies to perform sterilizations on poor, unwed, disabled women. the most popular form of female sterilization was tubal ligation, a surgical procedure that severs or seals a woman's fallopian tubes, permanently preventing her from conceiving a child. in most cases, medical providers did not have to ask for the women's consent before performing the procedure. mid-century practices sterilization abuse of black women peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. in 1970, black women were sterilized at over twice the rate of white women: 9 per 1,000 for black women as compared to 4.1 per 1,000 for white women. a second survey taken in 1973 indicated that 43% of women who underwent sterilization in federally financed family planning programs were also black. the intersection between race and low-income status made black women even more vulnerable to forced sterilization. many of these black women were poor and could only rely on federally subsidized clinics or medicaid for health care. some women had experienced sterilization without consent after a doctor had agreed to perform an illegal abortion; others were pressured into allowing sterilization after receiving a legal hospital abortion. the patterns were even worse for non-married black women; as of 1978, such women were 529 percent more likely to receive tubal sterilization than their white counterparts. during the 1960s and 1970s, punitive sterilization laws were proposed in california, connecticut, delaware, georgia, illinois, iowa, louisiana, maryland, mississippi, ohio, south carolina, tennessee, and virginia. the purpose of such laws was to reduce the number of children born to poor, unmarried mothers. many of these laws contained statutes that withheld welfare benefits from women with illegitimate children. as intended, these laws disproportionately affected women of color, particularly african-american mothers. according to the aclu, the eugenics board of north carolina approved 1,620 sterilizations between 1960 and 1968. of that number, 1023 were performed on black women and nearly 56 percent of those were performed on black women under 20 years of age. in addition to government actions, abuses of power also took place in the american medical establishment. one of the most infamous examples of such abuses was the actions of south carolina physician, clovis pierce. after accepting federal money to perform the sterilizations of 18 medicaid patients in his clinic, he told women that he would only deliver their third pregnancy