The Constitutional Case Against Defining Infertility, Faren Tang, Reproductive Justice Fellow, Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale
Legal definitions of infertility, usually for the purposes of state insurance mandates, rely on a faulty distinction between “medical” and “social” infertility and logically inconsistent double-standards for different-sex couples, same-sex couples, and single non-partnered individuals. But fertility coverage mandates, like all laws, must comport with basic Constitutional principles of equal protection and equal right to liberty.
Coerced Sterilization of Mexican-American Women: The Story of Madrigal v. Quilligan
This chapter tells the story of Madrigal v. Quilligan, an unpublished decision from a California federal district court refusing to remedy sterilization abuse in the early 1970s. After a whistleblower leaked evidence of rampant sterilization abuse at the Los Angeles County USC Medical Center, ten women (the Madrigal Ten) filed a lawsuit alleging that medical personnel systematically coerced Mexican-American women into submitting to sterilization. The case dramatically altered public consciousness and public policy on coerced sterilization.
Abortion Laws and Lawsuits in the Kavanaugh Era
After the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh, many have predicted the reversal, or at least the complete hollowing out, of Roe v. Wade in near future. Indeed, despite the Supreme Court’s stay of a restrictive Louisiana abortion law last month, there are at least 20 abortion cases that are currently in the pipeline to the highest court, any of which could gut women’s right to reproductive autonomy. What are the devils hidden in the details of so-called “TRAP” and other anti-abortion laws? What are the up-to-date states and prospects of related lawsuits?
We Will Be Citizens: from AIDS Activism to Mobilizing for Global Health Justice, Gregg Gonsalves, Asst. Prof. Yale School of Public Health
Abstract: In public health, we talk about how social and economic determinants drive health outcomes. But what if we go further and think about how the social and economic policies that make us sick are established in the first place? This takes us into politics, how we are governed and by whom, into the political determinants of health. The AIDS epidemic provides a lesson in the collision of late 20th century free-market fundamentalism, the politics of race, gender and sexuality with a new, deadly virus.
The Green Tsunami: Abortion Struggles and Feminism in Argentina
Violeta Canaves, Professor of Constitutional Law (Universidad Nacional del Litoral) LL.M. '15 and JSD Candidate (Yale Law School). Expert Witness during the Argentine House of Representatives hearings on the Decriminalization of Abortion Bill (2018)
Pregnancy, Power, and Professional Speech: NIFLA v. Becerra and the Deregulatory Uses of the First Amendment
Professors Robert Post and Amy Kapczynski will be joined by Julie Rikelmen, Senior Director, Litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, to discuss last summer’s opinion in NIFLA v. Becerra, 585 U.S. ---, 138 S. Ct.
Undue Burden in a Post-Truth World
David Brown will discuss litigants’ and the courts’ application of the undue burden standard recently clarified by the Supreme Court in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstetedt, 136 S.Ct. 2292 (2016) in ongoing litigation against anti-abortion laws around the country.
Litigating in the Age of Trump: Challenging Emerging Restrictions on Reproductive Rights, Genevieve Scott, Center for Reproductive Rights
Genevieve Scott is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights where she brings impact litigation challenges to restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. Prior to joining the Center, Genevieve served as a law clerk to the Honorable Helene N. White of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, as an attorney at the ACLU of Michigan, as a Resident Policy Fellow in the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School, and an as Associate at Mayer Brown, LLP.
A Law Stories Convening: Reproductive Rights and Justice
The Information Society Project Announces:
A Law Stories Convening: Reproductive Rights and Justice
Schedule:
Panel 1 (8:30 – 10:15)
Griswold (Murray) (Commentator: Franklin)
Struck (N. Siegel) (Commentator: Mayeri)
Roe (R. Siegel) (Commentator: Bagenstos)
Moderator: Smith
15 min break
Panel 2 (10:30 – 12:15)
Harris (Bridges) (Commentator: Shaw)
Black Mamas Matter: Maternal Mortality and Racial Disparities in Maternal Care
Black women are four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Maternal mortality rates in Texas are the highest in the entire developed world, driven in part by a disproportionate number of black women dying from giving birth.