Students will learn how ‘systems of oppression’ control ‘gendered bodies’
Boston University will offer a course during the fall 2025 semester that teaches social work students how to cultivate “reproductive justice” by prioritizing “bodily autonomy.”
The president of a pro-life organization told The College Fix the course “fails both social workers and women.”
BU lecturer Kimberly Hokanson is assigned to teach the course, called “Reproductive Justice and Social Work,” which is designed for social work practitioners who work with others one-on-one as well as those who address broader social issues, according to the course description.
Students will draw from “critical theoretical frameworks such as intersectionality, disability justice, radical reproductive justice, Black Feminisms, and racial capitalism” to “learn how systems of oppression and bodily autonomy are intertwined to impact the language, practices, and policies that control racialized and gendered bodies’ ability to have or not have children,” the description states.
Students will also examine how current threats to “bodily autonomy” stem from broader political and economic systems, and why social work practitioners must prioritize this “autonomy” in their efforts to promote “social justice,” it states.
The course aims to give students a better understanding of “reproductive health, rights, and justice and how social workers can support the promotion of healthy sexual and reproductive lives of all,” the description states.
It also states students will learn “how the control and subjugation of bodies is routinely used to oppress people and maintain oppressive social structures.”
The course will teach students “practical skills” related to “reproductive justice” and explore how policymakers, organizations, and advocates can help advance a more “liberatory future,” according to the description.
The College Fix reached out to BU media relations, Professor Hokanson, and Reproductive Equity Now Massachusetts via multiple emails for more information on the course. None responded.
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However, President of Massachusetts Citizens for Life Myrna Flynn told The Fix via email she believes the course is designed to “train abortion-rights activists.”
Flynn said the faculty and administrators who approved this course seem “determined to indoctrinate students,” which will shape the next generation of social workers into “reliable abortion industry ambassadors.”
Social workers have an “enormous responsibility” and should understand the “range of emotions” that women in crisis pregnancies endure, Flynn said.
These individuals need to be well-informed of all the options, related safety issues, and the long-term effects of women’s choices, she said.
“A comprehensive knowledge of reproductive health will result in the best possible outcome for women and reflect authentic, impartial service provided by the social worker in her care. The BU course, clearly designed to train abortion-rights activists, fails both social workers and women,” she said.
Flynn also told The Fix the course’s author has bought into the “fear mongering” pushed by the Democratic Party during the 2024 election cycle.
Democrats pushed a widespread narrative that the overturning of Roe v. Wade through the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision would result in a total loss of “reproductive rights” for women, Flynn said.
The Dobbs decision returned the authority to regulate abortion laws back to individual states instead of the federal government.
In response to the course’s claim that the “subjugation of bodies is routinely used to oppress people,” Flynn said “the person who wrote this would do well to consider the definitions of both ‘irony’ and ‘projection.’”
“The only attacks on bodily autonomy happening now are those on unborn children,” she said.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: People holding pro-abortion signs;Longfin Media/Shutterstock