After Roe and Dobbs: Seeking Reproductive Justice in the Next Fifty Years
It is impossible to overstate the importance of exploring the legacy and future of Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court’s watershed decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The constitutional, political, and policy landscape is changing by the day, with major implications for law, medicine, and public health. This symposium marks what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe and will evaluate various dimensions of reproductive justice as it existed until Dobbs and into the next 50 years. The symposium has a multidisciplinary approach, which will include attention to law, history, social movements, health equity, and reproductive health and justice, including the critical role of advocates in Boston and the Northeast region. A related issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics will be coedited by Professors Aziza Ahmed, Nicole Huberfeld, and Linda McClain, to be published in the fall of 2023.
This symposium will occur Thursday, January 26, 2023 at BU School of Law and is cosponsored by BU Law and BU School of Public Health, and is part of BU Law’s commemoration of its 150th anniversary (For those interested in coming to Boston, our timing coincides with “The Age of Roe” conference at Harvard Radcliffe on Friday, January 27th.)
Please note the Symposium location:
BU School of Law
765 Commonwealth Avenue
Barristers Hall, First Floor
We will offer this symposium in person, and virtually. Please register for zoom information.
This symposium is an inaugural event for BU Law’s new program in reproductive justice, which will launch officially in fall 2023.
For questions about registration, please contact lawevent@bu.edu For questions about the conference or JLME, please contact Professors Aziza Ahmed, Nicole Huberfeld, or Linda McClain.
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.
Agenda
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9:00 a.m.
Welcome
Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig will offer welcoming remarks.
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9:15 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Panel 1: Beginnings
This panel will have an historical focus and address the path to Roe and then to Dobbs, the history of the women’s health and reproductive justice movements, and ways this history has been misused.
Moderated by: Linda McClain, BU School of Law
George Annas, BU School of Public Health and School of Law, (Re)criminalizing Abortion: Returning to the Political with Ernaux and Edelin
Radhika Rao, UC Hastings College of Law, A Eulogy to Roe (or: What Would Justice Blackmun Say? A Response to Dobbs)
Reva Siegel, Yale Law School, Dobbs, Constitutional Memory, and Equality in the Reproductive Justice Debate
Paul Lombardo, Georgia State University College of Law, Eugenists And Abortion: The Historical Lie Buried in Dobbs
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10:45 a.m. - 11:55 a.m.
Panel 2: The Impact of Dobbs on Medical Practice and Reproductive Health Care
This panel will include the impact of Dobbs on medical education and medical practice, pregnant patients’ rights to self-determination, the social determinants of health and psychosocial stressors (including racism and neighborhood economic status) that shape reproductive health outcomes, cross-border access to abortion services, and access to assisted reproductive technology.
Moderated by: Nicole Huberfeld, BU School of Public Health and School of Law
Amirala Pasha, Mayo Clinic, The Impact of Dobbs on US Graduate Medical Education
Nadia Sawicki, Loyola University Chicago & Liz Kukura, Drexel Kline School of Law, From Constitutional Protections to Medical Ethics: The Future of Pregnant Patients’ Medical Self-Determination Rights After Dobbs
Yvette Cozier, BU School of Public Health, Insights from the Black Women’s Health Study
David Cohen, Drexel University, Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Understanding Shield Laws
Judy Daar, Dean, Northern Kentucky University, Where Does Life Begin? Discerning the Impact of Dobbs on Assisted Reproductive Technologies
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12:00 p.m. - 12:40 p.m.
Lunch
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12:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Panel 3: Roundtable Discussion: Dimensions of the Post-Dobbs Environment (Room 102)
This roundtable will be a conversation among reproductive justice advocates, organizations, researchers, and legal scholars about a range of challenges to and strategies for securing health justice and reproductive justice post-Dobbs. Topics will include maternal mortality, access to prenatal care, contraception, the role of conscience and religious liberty objections to reproductive health care.
The roundtable will take place in room 102.
Facilitator: Aziza Ahmed, BU School of Law
Judy Norsigian, Our Bodies Ourselves Today
Diana Namumbejja Abwoye, Lowell Community Health Center
Kimberly Mutcherson, Dean, Rutgers Law
Nashira Baril, Neighborhood Birth Center
Maya Manian, American University Washington College of Law
Elizabeth Sepper, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Renee Landers, MA Planned Parenthood, Suffolk Law
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2:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Panel 4: Law and the Regulation of Pregnancy, Reproduction, and Parenthood Post-Dobbs
This panel will address some of the proliferating legal issues in a post-Roe world and their bearing on securing reproductive justice, including access to abortion services (such as telemedicine and medication abortion), disability discrimination, surveillance of menstruation and pregnancy, and criminalization of pregnancy and conduct during pregnancy.
Moderated by: Shannon Gonick, JD Student '24 and President, If/When/How BU Law
Dabney Evans, Emory University, “A Daily Reminder of an Ugly Incident...”: Debate on Rape and Incest Exceptions in Early Abortion Ban Legislation in Six Southern States
Rachel Rebouché, Dean, Temple Law School & Greer Donley, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, The FDA and Abortion Policy after Dobbs
Leslie Francis, University of Utah, People with Disabilities as Reproductive Agents and Parents: The Reproductive Injustices of Abortion Bans for Disability
Michael Ulrich, BU School of Public Health and School of Law & Leah Fowler, University of Houston Law School, Continuous Reproductive Surveillance
Taleed El-Sabawi, FIU Law, Health Inequities Among People Who Use Drugs in a Post-Dobbs America: The Case for a Syndemic Analysis
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3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Break
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3:45 p.m. - 4:55 p.m.
Panel 5: Roundtable – Possible Futures for Reproductive Justice
This concluding panel will explore possible futures for reproductive health and justice after Dobbs, and will include such topics as reproductive genetic medicine; LGBTQ+ rights; the child welfare system and its disproportionate policing of Black families; reflections about the future of the “pro-life” movement; and possibilities for global feminist solidarity around abortion rights and access.
Facilitator: Sarah Sherman Stokes, BU School of Law
Terri-Ann Thompson, Ibis Reproductive Health, Leveraging the Tools Available: Using the Hyde Amendment to Preserve Minimum Abortion Access and Mitigate Harms in Restrictive States
Sonia Suter , George Washington University & Laura Hercher, Joan H. Marks Graduate Program in Human Genetics, Sarah Lawrence College, Reproductive Genetic Medicine in a Post-Dobbs World: Will It Make Life Harder for People with Genetic Disease?
Cathleen Kaveny, Boston College School of Law and School of Theology, Reflections about the “Pro-life” Movement after Dobbs
Alejandra L. Caraballo, Harvard Law School, Abortion, Gender-affirming Care, and Surveillance
Rep Tram T. Nguyen, Esq. (MA 18th Essex District)
Gabriela Arguedas-Ramírez Universidad de Costa Rica, RJ Beyond Borders: Global Feminist Solidarity in the Post-Roe v. Wade Era
Liz Tobin-Tyler, Brown University, Abortion Rights and the Child Welfare System: How Dobbs Exacerbates Existing Racial Inequities and Further Traumatizes Black Families
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5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Reception
Speakers
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