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Everything is Reproductive Justice
By Leigh Creighton Bond • December 30, 2020 •Writers in Residence
As an attorney, a Black woman, and a creative, I have decided to end 2020 and my time as a 2020 Writer in Residence with one of my personal stories from 2020. I had a hysterectomy this summer. I am not quite ready to share every detail of my hysterectomy story; yet, I am not sure I will ever be ready. My first thoughts when I approached my own story turned into a question, “how do you share a story when you hold shame?” The answer may be to contend with that shame and attack its roots. The roots…
Everything is Reproductive Justice— What Happens Next?
By Leigh Creighton Bond • October 31, 2020 •Writers in Residence
“There is no relative direction in the vastness of space. There is only yourself, your ship, your crew.” Commodore Paris to Captain Kirk I found myself watching Star Trek Beyond all weekend. I regularly watch a lot of action and science fiction, but I do not think it’s just my habits that led me to a particular plot and theme. “Election anxiety” has joined the stage and the lexicon for COVID-19 times. While the entire world is wrapped in a zoom or IRL lesson on grappling with the unexpected and uncertainty, the question still presents itself, “what happens next?” To answer…
Everything is Reproductive Justice—Reading Reproductive Justice in 2020
By Leigh Creighton Bond • September 23, 2020 •Writers in Residence
One of the most optimistic leaders I worked with once said something along the lines of, “sometimes, having a book, even if you can’t finish it or haven’t started reading it, can be useful because you are aware of the idea simply by having the book.” With that quote, I urge you to consider the following books if you or someone you know is beginning to explore reproductive justice in 2020. 1. Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts “Ms. Wooten ... stated that detained women expressed to her that they didn’t fully understand why they had…
Everything is Reproductive Justice - Formerly Known As (Part II)
By Leigh Creighton Bond • July 03, 2020 •Writers in Residence
Dear Leigh, How do you break up with someone? The same way you break up with your favorite business or even an idea. Remember when you were an adult education teacher in Washington, DC and taught the Declaration of Independence (“DOI”) as if it were a breakup letter? If you analyze the DOI as a break up letter, the DOI provides a break up letter template that begins with the idea that breakups should be done with respect and transparency: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected…
Everything is Reproductive Justice - Formerly Known As (Part I)
By Leigh Creighton Bond • June 24, 2020 •Writers in Residence
Recently, I celebrated co-authoring, “The Continued Rise of the Reproductive Justice Lawyer,” my first published paper as an attorney. Back in law school, I never understood or explored what law review meant. As a first generation lawyer, I was just trying to pass and get through every hurdle law school threw at me. My recent writing milestone has me thinking about my perspective and experience as a former law student. Below, I want to share a brief letter I penned to my former law student self: Dear Leigh Creighton, Remember when you were an undergraduate…
Everything is Reproductive Justice—A Voter Suppression Primer
By Leigh Creighton Bond • April 30, 2020 •Writers in Residence
Editor's Note: With Election Day on Tuesday, please consider this timely piece from Writer in Residence Leigh Bond. “I do not understand why staying home is so hard. 105 million of you managed it on Election Day in 2016.” I saw this quote on social media and it stung hard. Many times over, especially in times of crisis and national events, society has failed to seek out the entire story. The incomplete narrative that folks stayed home when they should have voted or fail to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic reminds me of Hurricane Katrina. More…
Everything is Reproductive Justice—Meet me at the Crossroads: #RJ & #Rona
By Leigh Creighton Bond • March 30, 2020 •Writers in Residence
My life was surreal before COVID-19. I was transitioning from a position with a reproductive justice organization and back into the field of law as a criminal defense attorney. At the start of 2020, I was also a newly divorced, Black woman ready to conquer my goals by not only being the best attorney I can be but also remaining connected to reproductive justice (this is one of the reasons I'm grateful to be a Ms. JD Writer in Residence). Yet, here I am anticipating not only what lawyering will look like as I re-engage with the law…
Everything is Reproductive Justice—An Unbought and Unbossed RJ Advocate
By Leigh Creighton Bond • February 29, 2020 •Writers in Residence
On the heels of Black History Month, the beginning of Women’s History Month, and amidst the presidential primaries, a spotlight on Shirley Chisholm seems apropos for an “Everything is Reproductive Justice” blog. “That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black, and a woman proves...that our society is not yet either just or free.” 16 Black women including retired, Shirley Chisholm got together in the summer of 1989 and signed “We Remember,” a brochure and first-of-its-kind collective statement supporting abortion access. The brochure offered a…
Everything is Reproductive Justice—Bail Bonds: Sometimes cash isn’t the problem
By Leigh Creighton Bond • January 31, 2020 •Writers in Residence
The awareness of the systemic destruction caused by the money bail system has grown alongside bail reform efforts and increased media coverage. Indeed, many may recall the story of a woman in Texas who admittedly took $1.00 (be sure to read that as "one dollar") and was charged with felony robbery. A judge set her bail at $12,000 and the woman was unable to post bail. There are more stories across the nation, like those of half the women in a Massachusetts jail who are stuck in jail because they cannot post a fifty dollar cash bail. Shedding light on the stories of…