08/12/2026
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Reproductive violence has a name… and it belongs in your vocabulary.
A 2024 UN Women / Global Justice Center paper defines it as acts or omissions that harm someone by interfering with their reproductive autonomy.
It includes forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, forced abortion and contraception, denial of abortion care, blocked access to reproductive healthcare, and the destruction of maternity infrastructure.
The finding: this harm is chronically under-documented in international investigations. Not because it isn’t happening, but because investigators lacked the mandate, training, or language to record it.
What doesn’t get documented doesn’t get counted, funded, or repaired.
The barriers they named will sound familiar to birth workers. Stigma around reproductive autonomy. Euphemistic language. Self-censorship.
Why it matters for us: we already support folks in the moments where reproductive autonomy is honoured or taken.
We already witness what never makes it into a chart. (It’s like screaming into the ether, y’all!!)
Precise language is protective.
“Denial of abortion care” is a legal category, not a euphemism.
Naming things accurately is part of the work.