Michele Goodwin (Georgetown University Law Center), “Gaslighting: The Politics of Sexual Violence and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice”

Using the example of post-<i>Dobbs<i> abortion bans that contain no exceptions for incest or rape, this talk will argue that law and institutions charged with protecting the vulnerable are often responsible for the oppression of women, the suppression of their capacities, and the harms that follow. It will examine some of the ways that the state wields and perpetuates sexual violence inconsistently based on race and class, as it curates prurient and avoidable harm against women and girls, fails to shield them from harm, and too frequently magnifies both risks of this harm and the harm itself. 

Learn more about the speaker, Michele Goodwin, by visiting her faculty bio.

*This event is part of the speaker series, “Reproductive Justice, Criminal Law, and the Carceral State,” which considers the criminalization of reproduction—historical and contemporary, local and global—largely through the lens of reproductive justice.

RSVP here: Reproductive Justice, Criminal Law, and the Carceral State Colloquium – Fill out form