Upcoming Events

  1. Time: 4PM
    In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the United States possesses a fragmented patchwork of state laws imposing varying degrees of restrictions on and penalties for abortion.

  2. Time: 4PM
    Faulty forensic evidence and biased evidence relying on sex-based stereotypes have long been used to convict innocent women in situations where an accident or health event has been misconstrued as a criminal act.

  3. Time: 4PM
    Using the example of post-Dobbs 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.

  4. Time: 4PM
    Healthcare conscientious objection allows providers to refuse treatment based on moral or religious beliefs.

Previous Events

  1. Speakers:
    • Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law; Co-Director, Rapoport Center
    • Wright C. Morrow Professor of Law
    Time: 4PM
    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade,  Texas has been home to one of the harshest criminal abortion bans in the country.

  2. Join us for a conversation with Lina-Maria Murillo on her book, "Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands."

  4. Speakers:
    What’s changed—and what’s next—for abortion access in Texas and across the nation.

  5. In partnership with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, we are excited to offer a free two-day skills training for legal professionals to help defenders navigate the legal, medical, and forensic complexities involved in pregnancy-related prosecutions. Register here!

  6. Join us for an evening of drinks, snacks, and conversation with new and old Repro Justice friends. This will be an informal space to connect with other RJ folks and learn more about what everyone is working on and opportunities for collaboration. Our goal is to foster solidarity and make this a monthly occurrence.

  7. Join us for an evening of drinks, snacks, and conversation with new and old Repro Justice friends. This will be an informal space to connect with other RJ folks and learn more about what everyone is working on and opportunities for collaboration. Our goal is to foster solidarity and make this a monthly occurrence.

  8. 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, will assert 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 contends 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.

  9. Wendy Bach, Professor of Law at University of Tennessee College of Law, will present 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. Watch a recording of this event.

  10. Amanda Heffernan, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Seattle University, will discuss 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. The findings demonstrate, she will argue, that under every policy regime, pregnant persons have been negatively impacted. Denise Gilman, Clinical Professor at UT School of Law, will respond. Watch a recording of this event.

  11. Isabel Jaramillo Sierra, Professor of Law at Universidad de los Andes, will discuss the decriminalization of abortion in Latin America and the need to bridge gaps between old and new feminisms to continue to work toward reproductive justice. Watch a recording of this event.

  12. Robyn Powell, Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law, will discuss how Dobbs creates a paradox for disabled people where they may be forced to bear children but subsequently denied the opportunity to rear them because of ongoing threats to their parental rights. Professor Powell’s talk will identify and respond to this paradox by providing and applying a disability reproductive justice framework. Julie Minich, Associate Professor in the Department of English, will respond. Watch a recording of this event.

  13. If/When/How, EC4EC, and Students for Planned Parenthood educated students and answered questions about Texans' reproductive healthcare and how to access confidential and accurate reproductive health resources.

  14. Caitlin Killian, Professor of Sociology at Drew University, discussed her new book, Failing Moms: Social Condemnation and Criminalizing Mothers. Using a reproductive justice lens, Professor Killian uncovers how women of all ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses have been interrogated, held against their will, and jailed for a rapidly expanding list of offenses such as falling down the stairs while pregnant or letting a child spend time alone in a park, actions that were not considered criminal a generation ago. The book analyzes how and why mothers are on a precipice and what must change to prevent mass penalization and instead support mothers and their children. Jennifer Glass, Centennial Commission Professor in the Liberal Arts #4, responded. Watch a recording of this event.

  15. Helen Jennings, barrister, Berkeley Law School doctoral student, and reproductive justice advocate, joined us to discuss her transitional justice evaluation of California's reparations system for victims of forced sterilization. Jennings evaluated the extent to which this engagement has been successful and suggested lessons from transitional justice that can be applied to California’s reckoning with the legacy of eugenics. Watch a recording of this event.

  16. Priscilla Ocen, Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, 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. Ocen explores ways to contest practices of alienation, denial of care, and humiliation of people in women's prisons 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. Watch a recording of this event.

  17. Ji Seon Song, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, examined the extent of hospital 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. Watch a recording of this event.

  18. Aziza Ahmed, Professor of Law, N. Neal Pike Scholar, and Co-Director of the Boston University Law Program on Reproductive Justice, used the example of the highly controversial forensic method known as the “floating lungs” test in the context of self-induced abortion and stillbirths to interrogate the relationship between scientific expertise, evidence, and lawmaking. Ahmed 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. Watch a recording of this event.

  19. UT students joined If/When/How, EC4EC, and Students for Planned Parenthood for a presentation about Texans' reproductive rights and how to access confidential, accurate, and legal reproductive health resources.

  20. Rachel Rebouché, Dean and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law, 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. Watch a recording of this event.

  21. The Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project hosted a CLE on pregnancy criminalization, which featured an opening roundtable discussion on the state of abortion access post-Dobbs between Marsha Jones (Afiya Center), Cathy Torres (Frontera Fund), Heather Allison (Fund Texas Choice), Kari White (Resound Research for Reproductive Health), and Mahathi Vemireddy (Pregnancy Justice). This roundtable was moderated by Blake Rocap and Karen Engle (Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project). Watch a recording of the roundtable discussion.

  22. Aziza Ahmed, Professor of Law, N. Neal Pike Scholar, and Co-Director of the Boston University Law Program on Reproductive Justice, discussed the current crisis of crisis pregnancy centers in collaboration with Texas Law If/When/How student chapter.

  23. Wendy A. Bach, Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law, discussed her 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. Aziza Ahmed, Professor of Law, N. Neal Pike Scholar, and Co-Director of the Boston University Law Program on Reproductive Justice, responded, and Rapoport Center co-director and Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law at Texas Law Karen Engle moderated. Watch a recording of this event.

  24. 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. Watch a recording of this event.

Event Types