Upcoming Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project Events

  1. Join us for a conversation with Kim Mutcherson, Co-Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, as she shares insights from her research on hospital counsel navigating abortion care in restrictive states. The discussion will explore how hospital lawyers interpret changing laws, guide physicians, and influence patient care.

Previous Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project Events

  1. Speakers:
    • Project Director, Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project
    • G. Rollie White Teaching Excellence Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law
    What’s changed—and what’s next—for abortion access in Texas and across the nation.

  2. As laws surrounding pregnancy-related prosecutions continue to evolve, defenders must be prepared to navigate the legal, medical, and forensic complexities involved. In partnership with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project, part of the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, is offering a free two-day training designed to equip criminal defense attorneys with the skills necessary to defend cases where pregnancy outcomes or healthcare decisions become the focus of criminal charges. The interactive program will include practical trial strategies, including voir dire techniques, working with forensic pathologists, and crafting compelling case narratives. The full schedule and registration can be found here. Pre-registration is required.

  3. What constitutional law arguments might be used to fight the criminalization of abortion in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision? In this talk, Cary Franklin, McDonald/Wright Chair of Law at UCLA School of Law, asserted that the Constitution’s guarantee of sex equality offers a potent tool for challenging criminal abortion bans by state governments. As states turn to the most coercive methods for regulating women’s reproductive capacities, Franklin contended that their carceral tools, including the criminalization of abortion, render women less-than-equal citizens in violation of the Constitutional guarantee of “equal protection.” While Dobbs eliminated the “liberty” to have an abortion, lawyers and advocates are working to find new paths forward. Franklin will trace one of these paths, showing how fifty years of jurisprudence on sex equality can be used to protect women from the carceral threats of abortion criminalization. Elizabeth Sepper, Crillon C. Payne, II Professor in Health Law at UT School of Law, will respond.

  4. Wendy Bach, Professor of Law at University of Tennessee College of Law, presented the preliminary findings of a national research study tracking prosecutions for pregnancy-related conduct in the first year after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, contextualizing them within larger conversations about pregnancy criminalization. Jennifer Laurin, George R. Killam, Jr. Chair of Criminal Law at UT School of Law, responded.

  5. Amanda Heffernan, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Seattle University, discussed her study of the impact of pregnancy-related immigration policies on the lived experiences of pregnant migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border during the Trump and Biden administrations. Heffernan argued that the findings demonstrate that under every policy regime, pregnant persons have been negatively impacted. Denise Gilman, Clinical Professor at UT School of Law, responded.

  6. Isabel Jaramillo Sierra, Professor of Law at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, outlined the feminist strategies that contributed to the decriminalization of abortion in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. She contrasted those “old feminisms” with “new” feminist approaches more inclined toward social media, arguing for the need to bridge gaps between old and new feminisms to continue to work toward reproductive justice. Neville Hoad, Associate Professor of English and co-director of the Rapoport Center, responded.

  7. Using a disability justice lens, Robyn Powell, Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law, argued that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization exacerbates a paradox for disabled people: they may be forced to bear children but subsequently denied the opportunity to rear them because of laws, policies, and practices that assume incompetence among disabled parents. Julie Minich, Associate Professor of English at UT Austin, responded.

  8. If/When/How, EC4EC, and Students for Planned Parenthood presented on Texans' reproductive rights and how to access confidential, accurate, and legal reproductive health resources.

  9. Join us for a conversation with Caitlin Killian, Sociologist and author of Failing Moms: Social Condemnation and Criminalization of Mothers.

  10. Helen Jennings presented her transitional justice evaluation of California's reparations system for victims of forced sterilization in California.

  11. Speaker:
    Professor Ocen's talk highlighted the racialized and gendered ways that incapacitation, or the idea of removing dangerous people from society, has been used to regulate the bodies and reproductive capacities of marginalized women. Specifically, through the “incapacitation of motherhood,” people in women's prisons are alienated from their children, denied reproductive care, humiliated during pregnancy and postpartum recovery, and in some cases, sterilized. It explored ways to contest these practices through both law and social movements, including prison abolition, informed by the principles of reproductive justice. Nessette Falu, Assistant Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, responded.

  12. Speaker:
    • Assistant Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law
    Professor Song's talk examined the extent of hospitals' participation in policing and punishment, arguing that hospitals in the “free world” have become part of the carceral infrastructure, performing functions essential to the operations of mass incarceration by identifying criminals, helping build criminal cases, preparing people for incarceration, and treating and returning people to imprisonment. Snehal Patel, Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Dell Medical School, responded.

  13. Speaker:
    • Professor of Law and N. Neal Pike Scholar at the Boston University School of Law; Co-Director of the BU Law Program in Reproductive Justice
    Using the example of the highly controversial forensic method known as the “floating lungs” test in the context of self-induced abortion and stillbirths, Professor Ahmed's talk interrogated the relationship between scientific expertise, evidence, and lawmaking, and argued that contestation around medical and epidemiological evidence shapes the regulation and criminalization of pregnancy-related outcomes. Jennifer Laurin, Wright C. Morrow Professor of Law, responded.

  14. Speaker:
    • G. Rollie White Teaching Excellence Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law
    Professor Rachel Rebouché discussed the attempts by antiabortion activists to stop medication abortion by any means necessary, including through criminalization; the implications for reproductive justice and public health; and how abortion rights advocates can keep these implications at the fore of their own efforts to increase access to abortion pills through federal and state advocacy. Kari White, Associate Professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, responded.

  15. Lunch & Learn with BU Law Professor Aziza Ahmed who will discuss the current crisis of crisis pregnancy centers.

  16. Professor Wendy A. Bach of the University of Tennessee College of Law discussed new book, "Prosecuting Poverty, Criminalizing Care," which focuses on Tennessee’s fetal assault law as an example of the criminalization of care in poor communities. Professor Aziza Ahmed, Boston University School of Law, responded.

  17. This two-part inaugural event of the Sissy Farenthold Fund for Peace and Social Justice brought together elected officials representing Austin and Travis County residents at the city, county, state, and federal levels—along with abortion funders and abortion rights advocates—to share strategies for securing post-Roe reproductive justice in Texas and beyond.

Event Types