#SMCR2015 Plenary Session Video Presentation

Keynote by Loretta J. Ross, Reproductive Justice Pioneer

Presented at the 21st Biennial Conference of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research at The Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights, held June 4-6, 2015, at Suffolk University in Boston, MA.

“I tend to think of reproductive justice as a promiscuous concept that will have sex with any idea that looks like it’s going to protect women’s human rights.”

Speaking at the SMCR conference on Menstrual Health and Reproductive Justice on June 5th , 2015, Loretta J. Ross addresses how women and girls can celebrate their bodies, especially their menses, instead of being shamed and hidden as in most cultures. Building on the experiences learned at the Black Women’s Health Imperative and using the human rights framework, Ross talks about how activists are changing the conversation about menstruation and womanhood.

Loretta J. Ross is an expert on women’s issues, hate groups, racism and intolerance, human rights, and violence against women. Her work focuses on the intersectionality of social justice issues an dhow this affects social change and service delivery in all movements. She was a co-founder and the national coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005-2012, a network founded in 1997 by women of color and allied organizations that organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement. She was also a national co-director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants, and the founder and executive director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia.

Videography provided courtesy of Robert Lewis.