Bridging Silos: Environmental and Reproductive Justice in the Climate Crisis

The climate crisis is a perilous yet underexamined example of the intersection of environmental injustice and reproductive injustice. The physical manifestations of the climate crisis affect key elements of reproductive justice: women's rights to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in healthy, sustainable communities. Reams of studies document climate disaster-driven gender violence, loss of access to healthcare and reproductive services, as well as direct and deadly health effects of climate change on maternal health, fetal development, infants, and children. Despite these profound impacts, the environmental and reproductive justice movements remain largely siloed, particularly in the legal community. This Article makes two interventions into existing legal scholarship. First, the Article identifies an intersectional nexus of hazard between environmental and reproductive justice, which is especially acute for women of color living in under-resourced communities. It argues that environmental injustices in the context of the climate crisis undermine reproductive justice. Second, the Article explores how the movements can align strands of their advocacy and suggests how advocates can leverage various legal and policy strategies to mitigate these intersectional injustices. It argues for a ground-up approach based on community power-building and interdisciplinary cooperation, which can inform legal and policy solutions at scale. Collective action to foster health and dignity has never been more urgent, as climate change harms escalate, maternal health deteriorates, and the Supreme Court issues decisions shredding reproductive autonomy and circumscribing environmental regulatory authority.