Bodily autonomy at the heart of reproductive health and justice

Celebrating 50 years of social justice activism

Bodily autonomy is central to a holistic understanding of social justice. At Inter Pares, it is expressed in how we accompany and support global struggles for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Over the past 50 years, our SRHR activism has taken many forms. Here’s a glimpse of what it has meant to build a world where every person can exercise control over their own bodies. 

To learn more, visit www.interpares.ca/50years

Preventing unsafe contraceptives from harming women

In the 1980s, multinational corporations and northern aid programs, including Canada’s, promoted contraceptives to poor women in Bangladesh1 that had been taken off the market domestically. Inter Pares’ overseas counterparts were actively campaigning against this injustice. Following their lead, we joined forces with nearly a dozen Canadian allies and advocated successfully to CIDA (now Global Affairs Canada) to stop sending drugs deemed unsafe for women in the North to women in the South. We advocated for bodily autonomy, just as our counterparts were doing, feeding each other’s analysis, campaigns and activism.

Connecting survivors of forced sterilization 

In 2019, Inter Pares supported our counterpart SISAY to bring Victoria Saccsara, a victim-survivor of forced sterilization from Peru to a human rights forum in Ecuador. There, Victoria heard about other experiences, including those of Morningstar Mercredi, an Indigenous woman from Canada. Their connection sparked a strong bond of solidarity to demand justice for all survivors. In 2022, Morningstar released Sacred Bundles Unborn, a book about the ongoing global practice of forced sterilization of Indigenous women, which included an essay by Victoria. Victoria reflected, “Being organized as victims of forced sterilizations and the solidarity and support of human rights institutions as allies gives us strength and makes us see that we are not alone.” 

Expanding SRHR work in Bangladesh, El Salvador, Philippines and Sudan

Inter Pares has accompanied counterparts for decades to implement their own SRHR programming. Between 2019 and 2024, we supported long-term counterparts, Nijera Kori (Bangladesh), Colectiva Feminista (El Salvador), Likhaan Center for Women’s Health (Philippines) and the Sudanese Organization for Research and Development, to scale up their own SRHR work, thanks to our successful fundraising from the Canadian government. These efforts focused on defending the bodily autonomy of women, especially adolescent girls. It was inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community, who are often the target of social stigma and criminalization. Inter Pares supported contraceptive counselling and clinical services, educational outreach in and out of schools, training for teachers to provide comprehensive sexuality education, and advocacy for pro-SRHR laws and policies. 

These vignettes highlight the diversity of ways in which Inter Pares and our feminist approach has centred bodily autonomy and will continue to do into the future.