Anu Manchikanti Gómez

Reproductive Justice: A North Star for Advocacy and Research

Session Abstract

The rights to have children, to not have children, to parent with dignity, and to bodily autonomy: these are the tenets of reproductive justice, a transformative framework conceptualized by 12 Black women in Chicago in 1994. This lecture will introduce the reproductive justice framework and its historical roots and discuss applications in research and advocacy for a range of topics, including contraceptive counseling and birth equity.

Speaker Bio

Anu Manchikanti Gömez (she/her) is a scholar of sexual and reproductive health equity who uses participatory and engaged approaches to produce knowledge that centers the communities most affected by reproductive oppression. As an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare and the director of the Sexual Health and Reproductive Equity Program, she has a long track record of conducting innovative and rigorous research that puts reproductive justice into practice and that has affected programs, policy, and practice. Her ongoing projects focus on advancing birth equity and contraceptive access. Dr. Gómez is co-PI of the evaluation of the Abundant Birth Project (ABP), the first guaranteed income program for pregnant people in the United States. Initially a pilot program in San Francisco launched by Expecting Justice, ABP has now expanded to 5 California counties. The evaluation seeks to identify the impact of unconditional income supplementation on adverse pregnancy outcomes, maternal mental health, and infant development among Black-identified program participants. Dr. Gómez is also currently leading a project focused on contraceptive misinformation—documenting its presence on TikTok, understanding how it affects young people, and developing strategies to disrupt it.