Investigate legal and political barriers people face in exercising autonomy over their bodies and control over their health and reproductive lives.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Reproductive Justice is an approach to understanding the barriers people face in exercising autonomy over their bodies and control over their health and reproductive lives. From decisions about whether to become pregnant or continue a pregnancy, to prenatal care and birthing, to the ability to parent, people encounter unique barriers depending on how society values or seeks to control their bodies, sexuality, and their ability to reproduce, reflecting structural racism, misogyny, classism, disablism, and other forms of bias. Using a reproductive justice frame, this course will cover some of the major legal and political struggles around access to reproductive health care, bodily autonomy, and the ability to parent today.
Topics covered will include current legal challenges to the right to abortion and the communities left behind by U.S. constitutional protections, the ongoing crisis in maternal mortality among Black women, and state over-surveillance and separation of families through child removal practices. The course will consider both how legal strategies can be used to dismantle reproductive oppression as well as the limitations of legal advocacy.
The class will be taught in an online seminar format incorporating guest speakers and multimedia learning materials (including films and video presentations). In addition to legal cases, readings will include policy reports, historical, sociological, and public health materials. The evaluation will be based on weekly reflection memos, class participation, and an in-class (virtual) presentation. In order to select participants, interested students may be asked to fill out a questionnaire on their interest in the topic and learning goals.
What You’ll Learn:
- Discuss current constitutional protections of reproductive rights and the limitations of legal advocacy
- Analyze how race, class, ableism, and other identities impact a person’s ability to access and enjoy quality reproductive health services, decide whether, when, and how to have a child, and parent the children they have in a safe and healthy environment
- Describe the role that history, politics, and changes in reproductive technology have played in shaping struggles for reproductive justice
- Develop strategies to work with communities to dismantle reproductive oppression
Instructor
Cynthia Soohoo
Cynthia Soohoo is a Professor at CUNY Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic. Her work focuses on barriers to reproductive health and abortion services, including affordability, regulatory burdens, attacks on health providers, and criminalization of pregnant women. A former director of the U.S. Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights, she has authored submissions to the U.S. Supreme Court, appellate courts, and international forums on access to abortion forced sterilization and criminalization of women’s reproductive choices.
Farah Diaz-Tello
Farah Diaz-Tello is the Associate Legal and Policy Director for If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice. Her work employs litigation and policy strategies to ensure that people can make decisions about pregnancy without punishment by the state or private actors. Her publications address the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes, economic coercion in childbirth, obstetric violence, and reproductive issues in pop culture.
Credits
Cost
NY Residents
Out of State Residents