Reproductive justice is a critical feminist framework that was invented as a response to United States reproductive politics. The three core values of reproductive justice are the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to parent a child or children in safe and healthy environments. The framework moves women's reproductive rights past a legal and political debate to incorporate the economic, social, and health factors that impact women's reproductive choices and decision-making ability.

Reproductive justice is "the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities," according to SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the first organization founded to build a reproductive justice movement. In 1997, 16 women-of-color-led organizations representing four communities of color – Native American, Latin American, African American, and Asian American – launched the nonprofit SisterSong to build a national reproductive justice movement. Additional organizations began to form or reorganize themselves as reproductive justice organizations starting in the early 2000s.

Reproductive justice, distinct from the reproductive rights movements of the 1970s, emerged as a movement because women with low incomes, women of color, women with disabilities, and LGBT+ people felt marginalized in the reproductive rights movement. These women felt that the reproductive rights movement focused primarily on "pro-choice" versus "pro-life" (supporters versus opponents of abortion rights) debates. In contrast, the reproductive justice movement acknowledges the ways in which intersecting factors, such as race and social class, limit the freedom of marginalized women to make informed choices about pregnancy by imposing oppressive circumstances or restricting access to services, including but not limited to abortion, Plan B pills, and affordable care and education. Reproductive justice focuses on practical access to abortion rather than abortion rights, asserting that the legal right to abortion is meaningless for women who cannot access it due to the cost, the distance to the nearest provider, or other such obstacles. Reproductive justice extends beyond the pro-choice/pro-life debate and encompasses three primary principles: the right to have children, the right not to have children, and the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments.

The Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA) embodies reproductive justice by confronting the maternal health crisis among Black women in the United States. Founded in 2016, BMMA emerged from the movement's recognition that Black women's right to have and parent children in safe, healthy environments is systematically denied—Black women face maternal mortality rates 2.6 times higher than white women. The organization fights structural racism in healthcare by advocating policy reforms that honor Black women's bodily autonomy and by promoting culturally informed care models. Initiatives like Black Maternal Health Week and the "Black Paper" policy recommendations center Black women's experiences, address social determinants of health, and foster Black-led solutions. BMMA's work illustrates how reproductive justice spans the full spectrum of reproductive experiences, particularly for communities historically subjected to reproductive oppression.

The reproductive justice framework encompasses a wide range of issues affecting the reproductive lives of marginalized women, including access to: contraception, comprehensive sex education, prevention and care for sexually transmitted infections, alternative birth options, adequate prenatal and pregnancy care, domestic violence assistance, adequate wages to support families, and safe homes. Reproductive justice is based on the international human rights framework, which views reproductive rights as human rights. Reproductive justice expands beyond pro-choice and reproductive rights frameworks by affirming the right to have children, not have children, and to parent children in safe and supportive environments. It emphasizes an intersectional analysis, recognizing how race, immigration status, economic class, gender identity, and disability shape individuals' reproductive autonomy.

Recent legal and scholarly developments frame abortion restrictions as human-rights violations disproportionately affecting marginalized groups. Human Rights Watch notes that denying abortion access can violate rights to health, life, and freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment—especially when restrictions force individuals to carry unwanted or nonviable pregnancies.

The framework of reproductive justice has been used in the social sciences for years, but reproductive justice organizations also work to apply it in real life to combat reproductive injustice. Recent scholarship advocates applying the reproductive justice framework to the medical field, particularly in the field of sexual and reproductive healthcare and in response to the practice of shackling pregnant prisoners. Organizations that do work in this area include The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Medical Association (AMA), and Advocacy and Research on Reproductive Wellness of Incarcerated People (ARRWIP).

The term reproductive justice combines reproductive rights and social justice. It was coined and formulated as an organizing framework by a group of Black women who came together for that purpose in 1994 and called themselves Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice. They gathered in Chicago for a conference sponsored by the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance and the Ms. Foundation for Women with the intention of creating a statement in response the Clinton administration's proposed plan for universal health care. The conference was intentionally planned just before the attendees would be going to the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, which reached the decision that the individual right to plan one's own family must be central to global development. The women developed the term as a combination of reproductive rights and social justice, and dubbed themselves Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice. They launched the framework by publishing full-page statement titled "Black Women on Universal Health Care Reform" with 800+ signatures in The Washington Post and Roll Call addressing reproductive justice in a criticism of the Clinton health care plan. The women who created the reproductive justice framework were: Toni M. Bond Leonard, Reverend Alma Crawford, Evelyn S. Field, Terri James, Bisola Marignay, Cassandra McConnell, Cynthia Newbille, Loretta Ross, Elizabeth Terry, 'Able' Mable Thomas, Winnette P. Willis, and Kim Youngblood.