Advancing Pregnant Persons’ Right to Life Symposium

Boston University School of Law
Thursday, February 8th 2024
Barristers Hall
9:00am–2:30pm

In the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, attention has turned to how a constitutional right to life recognizes and values the life and health of pregnant persons. This symposium will gather leading scholars to explore the jurisprudence of the “right to life” and pathways for developing robust constitutional protection of pregnant persons’ life and health, and more broadly, for all people of reproductive age. By comparison with jurisprudence on the rights to liberty and property in the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution and state constitutional counterparts, the US jurisprudence on the right to “life” is underdeveloped. This stands in contrast to international human rights law, which has articulated a fundamental “right to life” that encompasses rights to life, health, dignity, and autonomy. 

Post-Dobbs litigation in state courts over restrictive abortion laws has highlighted state constitutions as a source of protecting the right to life of pregnant persons. Several state courts have invoked the inherent or fundamental right to life of pregnant persons to conclude that abortion bans are partially or wholly unconstitutional.

The symposium will examine these and other contexts in which scholars and advocates are focusing on developing a right to life for people of reproductive age. These include international human rights and reproductive justice principles that inform a constitutional right to life, as well as other related issues where the right to life is at issue, such as environmental justice.

This symposium is hosted by the Boston University Program on Reproductive Justice and co-organized with Northeastern University’s Center for Health Policy and Law and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Boston University Law Review Online will publish the symposium papers.

Please register to attend the symposium in person. The final panel – a Roundtable from 1–2:30pm  – will also be available via live stream. Please register to receive the zoom link.

Symposium Relevant Reading Materials
Amicus Brief on the Texas state constitution and the “right to life” of pregnant persons
Wrigley v. Romanick
Wrigley v Romanick Case Summary
Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice v. Drummond
Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice v Drummond Case Summary
Martha F. Davis, Annotated Bibliography- “Persons Born” and the Jurisprudence of “Life”, Boston University Law Review Online (forthcoming). 
UN Human Rights Committee General Comment 36 on the right to life (establishing access to abortion as a legal obligation in ensuring the right to life).
What About Our Right to Life? (Michele Goodwin, The Nation)

Boston University School of Law strives to be accessible, inclusive and diverse in our facilities, programming and academic offerings. Your experience in this event is important to us. If you have a disability (including but not limited to learning or attention, mental health, concussion, vision, mobility, hearing, physical or other health related), require communication access services for the deaf or hard of hearing, or believe that you require a reasonable accommodation for another reason, please contact lawevent@bu.edu to discuss your needs. Please note, that the office of Disability Services typically requires 10 business days notice for services.