Lynn Paltrow of National Advocates for Pregnant Women will present, “Roe v. Wade and the New Jim Crow:  Reproductive Justice in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” forthcoming, American Journal of Public Health. 

About the Presentation
Nearly 40 years ago, Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortion. So, why are women who have abortions being arrested today?  Why are hundreds of pregnant women being subjected to arrests, detentions, and forced medical interventions?  This talk will examine the relationships among abortion, race, the war on drugs, and the growth of the prison industrial complex.  It will address the question of whether it is possible to add fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses to the community of constitutional persons without subtracting pregnant women.  And, it will explore the possibility of a true culture of life that includes the women who bring forth that life.

About the Speaker
Acclaimed activist, author and attorney Lynn Paltrow is the founder and Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW).  Ms. Paltrow has worked on a variety of cases involving the rights to have children, not to have children, and to birth and parent children in safety and dignity.   She has published extensively on legal, health, and ethical issues relating to pregnant women, children, families, and the war on drugs.  In addition to her work with NAPW, Ms. Paltrow has served as a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, Director of Special Litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Vice President for Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood of New York City. 

About the Organization
NAPW works to ensure that women, upon becoming pregnant, do not lose their civil and human rights. The organization uses an integrated strategy of legal advocacy, organizing, and public education to win difficult cases, speak to new audiences, build new bridges, and expand the base of Reproductive Justice advocates.  NAPW provides litigation support in cases across the country, including the highly-publicized case of Bei Bei Shuai, a 34-year-old pregnant Chinese immigrant charged with murder and attempted feticide for attempting suicide.  RSVP to reprojustice@law.berkeley.edu 

FOCUS

CRRJ is dedicated to the pursuit of reproductive justice, maintaining that all people deserve the social, financial, political, and legal conditions required to make genuine choices about reproduction – choices that must be respected, supported, and treated with dignity.  We are particularly concerned about advancing the position of marginalized populations whose reproduction has been forced, denied, or exploited.  The rights to have children, not to have children, and to parent children are of an intimate, fundamental nature and ought to be accessible to all.

FOUNDING

After nearly 40 years of thinking, writing, and teaching about reproductive rights, Kristin Luker wanted to establish a lasting institution devoted to exploring the issues that fascinated her, the problems that perplexed her, and the people who inspired her.  She engaged colleagues who affirmed and elaborated her idea for a physical and intellectual hub where students, scholars, and advocates alike could convene and collaborate. One of the first people Luker reached out to for advice was Jill Adams, who had a penchant for turning plans into actions and growing ideas into institutions, as evidenced by her leadership of Law Students for Reproductive Justice.  Before running   LSRJ,  Adams had been a student of Luker’s in a reproductive rights seminar she had campaigned for and helped to create.  Teaching the seminar reignited Luker’s interest in issues of reproduction, law, and policy.  Around the same time, at a 30-year retrospective on Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, Luker was asked by an audience member why more of the discussion wasn’t focusing on reproductive justice.  The conversations that followed with that audience member, then a PhD student writing her dissertation about the reproductive justice movement, convinced Luker that there would be an important role for Zakiya Luna to play in the institution she was envisioning.  Today, Luker, Adams, and Luna are the founders responsible for shaping the first – and to date the only – multi-disciplinary policy research center dedicated to reproductive rights and justice.

Read more about CRRJ’s launch here.