Toni Bond, Methodist Theological School in Ohio

For almost 30 years, Dr. Toni Bond has worked tirelessly to make the voices of Black women heard around issues of reproductive and sexual health, rights, and justice. In 1994, Dr. Bond was one of the twelve Black women who gave birth to the concept of “Reproductive Justice,” creating a paradigm shift in how women of color would add their collective voices to the fight for reproductive autonomy and freedom. Reproductive justice was created to shed light on the combined forms of oppression that contribute to women of color’s reproductive oppression and as a systematic way to develop practical strategies of resistance and liberation.

In 1994, Dr. Bond was the first black woman appointed to serve as the executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, one of the oldest abortion funds in the Midwest. In 1996, she co-founded and led the first Black women’s reproductive justice organization in the country, Black Women for Reproductive Justice. Dr. Bond is a recognized leader and expert on working at the intersections of religion and reproductive justice. A womanist theo-ethicist, her areas of specialization include gender and sexuality, reproductive health, rights, and justice, Black feminist theory and methodology, womanist theory and methodology, and womanist and Christian ethics. Her scholarly foci are reproductive justice and women of color, religion, faith, and reproductive justice, and womanist theo-ethics and reproductive justice.

Keynotes and lectures Dr. Bond has given include the American Public Health Association, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, the American Academy of Religion, the Intercollegiate Feminist Center for Teaching, Research and Engagement at Scripps College, the National Abortion Federation, the International Cross-Cultural Black Women’s Studies Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa, the 10th International Women and Health Meeting in New Delhi, India, the National Convocation—Christian Church Disciples of Christ, and a NGO-sponsored session at the 2001 Third UN World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and other Forms of Intolerance in Durban, South Africa.  In December, 2008, Dr. Bond was part of a group of reproductive health, rights, and justice advocates invited to make recommendations to President Barack Obama’s transition team about advancing reproductive health and rights. Her testimony garnered her additional invitations from the Obama administration to participate in several White House meetings to share her insights about reducing unintended pregnancies.

Dr. Bond is the recipient of numerous awards, including, the Jane Bagley Lehman Fellowship from the Tides Foundation, the Pauli Murray Award from the Chicago Now Education Fund, the Bella Abzug Woman of Achievement Award from the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization of Women, and the Women in History Award from the Woman’s Board of the Chicago Urban League. In 2017, she received the Sharon Watson Fluker Doctoral Fellowship from the Forum for Theological Exploration. In support of her dissertation research, in 2019, Dr. Bond was named the inaugural Fellow for the Fellowship for Reproductive Justice Research, a research fellowship sponsored by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a collaborative research group at the University of California, San Francisco Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. She was named the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at Interfaith Voices for Reproductive Justice. Dr. Bond also received the Emerging Scholars Award from the Society for Family Planning in support of her dissertation research. She was one of the 2019 fellows in the CrossCurrents Summer Research Colloquium at Auburn Seminary.

Dr. Bond currently serves as board chair of the board of directors for Interfaith Voices for Reproductive Justice. She is also on the board of the Civil Liberties & Public Policy Program. She has served on the boards and advisory committees of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the Trust Black Women Partnership, the National Network of Abortion Funds, and the Guttmacher Institute.

Dr. Bond received her B.A. from DePaul University with a focus in Women & Gender Studies. She completed her M.A. in Theology/Ethics at Claremont School of Theology (CST), receiving their University Scholars Award, a fully funded scholarship. She completed her Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Society at CST.