Reproductive Freedom

Purple illustration of a crowd of people with one holding a sign with a hanger and a crossed out symbol over it with purple text on the outer edge on a white background

This button represents the protection of legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as: “…recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsible the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.” The main statement being made by the illustration on this button is a woman’s right to legal and safe abortion, as symbolized by the image of the hanger with a line through it. Many women who did not have access to safe abortions resorted to using clothes hangers. In 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a right to privacy extended to a woman’s legal right to have an abortion.