Framework Instructions

Template to send to authors whose submissions we want to accept (link in Google Drive). Updated June 2020.

Google Drive link to instructions document

Dear Author, We are requesting all authors submit detailed outlines for their articles in advance of committing to a full draft. This helps in assigning the appropriate editors and should also be helpful for you in starting the writing process.

Please provide us with an outline that touches upon the introduction, main points, and conclusion of your article, in one or two sentences each. We recognize that the content of your article will likely change throughout the editing process, so think of this as a starting point for a conversation with your editors. However, be as specific as possible as to the content and flow of your arguments. See below for an example outline for a 2000-word article (this is the finished article).

Skeleton: From Pro-Choice Politics to Reproductive Justice

Intro: Lacklustre support for abortion provision has ceded power to the right and allowed abortion to be seen as a controversial, outlier topic. As such, access to abortion has been eaten away as part of wider system of fragmented social services, privatised healthcare and disempowerment of women, trans and non-binary people and other marginalised groups.

I: The current climate on abortion in the US has led to draconian laws and redoubling commitments to the Mexico City Policy, endangering women worldwide. Access to sexual and reproductive health services is critical and evidence is mounting that the US pulling funding is directly leading to women’s deaths.

II: Meanwhile, there has been a sharp rise in miscarriages and stillbirths among women detained at the border, alongside slackening of the regulations around incarcerating pregnant migrants. Withdrawal of medical provision is threatening lives in these camps.

III: Compromises on abortion have allowed it to be figured as separate from other routine gynaecological services (pap smear, fertility support, contraception, psychosocial perinatal support). Fight for Roe v Wade access to abortion has removed context of bodily autonomy and right to healthcare.

IV: Intro to Reproductive Justice movement and positioning reproductive rights within a framework of social justice and the capacity to have meaningful fertility options through access to sexual and reproductive health services inc maternity services, childcare options, safety for incarcerated pregnant people, parental leave. Critical for intersectional approach to reproductive rights due to black and non-white maternal mortality, sterilization, incarceration, Flint water and treatment of migrant women and long-standing suppression of marginalised people’s capacity to have and raise children safely.

Conclusion: Clear from the fatalities that cutting access and budgets is not in pursuit of “life” but part of the disintegration of social support and the ongoing limitations on non-white people to have reproductive options. We need to understand the connections between these issues and adopt a reproductive justice approach to liberate all users of sexual and reproductive health for “choice” to be a meaningful organizing principle.