Dobbs, Race, and Gender: How Racialized Politics Shape the Reproductive Landscape for Women of Color

This thesis explores the question 'how have racialized politics created an environment in which women of color are disproportionately impacted by the 2022 Dobbs decision?'Centuries of racist and sexist policies working in conjunction with one another have put women of color at a substantial disadvantage in the United States, the impacts of which continue to manifest themselves into the twenty first century. The great distances which women of color have to travel for abortions under Dobbs, the extent to which they are criminalized for pregnancy related actions, and the devastating healthcare inequalities they face all give evidence to the concept that women of color feel the impacts of Dobbs to a greater extent than their White counterparts. This further makes the case for the need for a more all encompassing approach to the reproductive rights movement, in which activists focus on streamlining their work to include women of color in their fight.