Dazon Dixon Diallo fought for reproductive justice for decades
Founder of SisterLove Inc. among the pioneers in inclusive philosophy
Dazon Dixon Diallo, a pioneer in the reproductive justice philosophy, has fought for women of color to be included in the larger women’s movement. For close to 40 years, she has worked on issues ranging from sexual health pertaining to HIV transmission to abortion rights to establishing more financial support for Black women.
Dixon Diallo saw firsthand the siege of Atlanta, where antiabortion protestors harassed clinic workers and women seeking abortions in 1988. The event was credited with radicalizing the antiabortion movement.
Six years later, the reproductive justice philosophy began with the ideas adopted from Loretta Ross, a close friend of Dixon Diallo.
“I'm in agreement with how she lays this part of the narrative is that for so many of us, the conversation really was about what did we need?” Dixon Diallo said. “What were our issues? How would we talk about issues that we were experiencing in the context of reproductive rights?”
White women initially misunderstood the concept of reproductive justice
“Anytime people talk about we came up with RJ because white women weren't including us is not the truth. Right?” Dixon Diallo said. “Abortion and contraception were very much our issue. It's just that it wasn't our only issue.
“And so it wasn't about trying to undo the reproductive rights movement. It was about recreating a different way to organize and make sure that our policy issues were immediately as relevant as the abortion issue.”
Like many seasoned feminists, Dixon Diallo has seen and heard many of the antiabortion arguments that can be based on historical deceit. Among them is the rhetoric that says Planned Parenthood perpetrated a genocide on Black women through the use of birth control and abortion. Such claims can take younger feminists—who are often unaccustomed to such stunning remarks—by surprise. Dixon Diallo recommends a simple approach to rebutting it.
“Abortion is an individual choice, right?” Dixon Diallo said. “Genocide is a whole other political act that takes on a different type of meaning because now you're saying that the government leadership and the power are intentionally systematically forcing individuals to kill people of a certain kind.”
For more on Dixon Diallo and her political organization, visit sisterlove.org.