This March, the FREE Center was honored to host prominent scholar and activist Loretta Ross. Loretta Ross is one of the founding members of SisterSong and Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. She also helped coin the phrase and framework “Reproductive Justice”. 

Loretta Ross’ talk, titled, Reproductive Justice as Human Rights was held at WOSU on March 24th. Over 200 people attended the event, including students, faculty, staff, as well as community members. 

Several community organizations active in the Reproductive Justice space were featured during the pre-reception. These organizations included: Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Abortion Fund of Ohio, Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN), Abortion Forward, and Ohio Women’s Alliance. Representatives from each organization provided informational materials, answered questions, and detailed their advocacy efforts. 

During the talk, Loretta Ross spoke about her activist background, the founding of Sister Song, and the origins of the famous tenets of Reproductive Justice. She describes her work in the movement as intersectional and collaborative. For example, Ross credits the fourth tenet, “the right to nurture the children we have in a safe and healthy environment”, with her effort to bring pro-life activists to the Reproductive Justice framework. 

Ross also described her new book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel (2025). She emphasizes that allies can come from a variety of places and that they do not need to be ideologically aligned to work towards common goals. Her sentiments, especially the emphasis on solidarity, unity, and collaboration, provided the audience with useful tools to navigate the politically divisive climate. 

The FREE Center will remain active through the end of the semester. In the following weeks, the FREE Center will announce the recipients for the Graduate Small Grants. Additionally, the FREE Center will host two Graduate Student Writing Retreats during finals week.

The FREE Center is housed in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, is a hub for community-engaged feminist research and teaching that brings together individuals from across the university and Columbus community. 

To learn more about the FREE Center and upcoming events, visit the FREE Center website.