Khiara M. Bridges is a professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law. She has written many articles concerning race, class, reproductive rights, and the intersection of the three. Her scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the California Law Review, the NYU Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others. She is also the author of three books: Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization (2011), The Poverty of Privacy Rights (2017), and Critical Race Theory: A Primer (2019). She is a coeditor of a reproductive justice book series that is published under the imprint of the University of California Press.
She graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College, receiving her degree in three years. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her Ph.D., with distinction, from Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology. While in law school, she was a teaching assistant for the former dean, David Leebron (Torts), as well as for the late E. Allan Farnsworth (Contracts). She was a member of the Columbia Law Review and a Kent Scholar. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic Arabic, and she is a classically trained ballet dancer.
Education
B.A., summa cum laude, Spelman College
J.D., Columbia Law School
Ph.D., with distinction, Columbia University
Khiara M Bridges is teaching the following course in Spring 2024:
Courses During Other Semesters
Semester | Course Num | Course Title | Fall 2024 | 212.3 sec. 001 | Critical Race Theory | Fall 2023 | 212.3 sec. 001 | Critical Race Theory | 281 sec. 001 | Family Law | Spring 2023 | 281 sec. 001 | Family Law |
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Birth Control Restrictions Could Follow Abortion Bans, Experts Say
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the Supreme Court’s recent decisions have sent a message to conservative state lawmakers that it won’t stand in the way of laws restricting birth control methods. “It’s all of the implications of the Dobbs decision that make us reasonable to be fearful about the accessibility of contraception in the future,” she says.
Q&A: If Abortion Is Illegal, What Happens Next?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges and NPR reporter Sarah McCammon answer listener questions about what a post Roe v. Wade world might look like.
Abortion, Climate, Guns, and Religion: Supreme Court Poised for a Sharp Right Turn
Four Berkeley Law professors, including Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, discuss the court’s anticipated conservative decisions on some of America’s most divisive issues.
Overturning Roe v. Wade could restrict more than abortion, according to experts
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade could have implications for other reproductive rights such as contraception and IVF
After Leaked Roe Ruling, GOP Weighs Stricter Abortion Bans
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says in its initial filing, the plaintiffs in Dobbs were testing how far the Supreme Court would go to disregard the viability line
The Post-Roe Battleground for Abortion Pills Will Be Your Mailbox
Professor Khiara M. Bridges explains the obstacles to mail-ordered abortion medications and says she expects a conflict between a state’s ability to regulate the practice of medicine and the federal government’s ability to regulate the availability of any medication in the US.
What Would Overturning Roe Mean for Birth Control?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges warns, if the Supreme Court is willing to do away with longstanding precedent like Roe, Bridges said, it’s impossible to predict what other rights also could be in question
Biden can’t do much about abortion rights, but here’s what he could try
Professor Khiara M. Bridges explores the idea of the federal government leasing out federal lands and allow abortion clinics to operate on them
Roe established abortion rights. 20 years later, Casey paved the way for restrictions
Professor Khiara M. Bridges helps unpack the complicated question of what constitutes a burden
‘Everyone who is vulnerable in some way’ will bear the brunt if court overturns Roe, specialists say
Professor Khiara M. Bridges, one of the authors of an amicus brief in the Dobbs case, says the burden of restricted abortion access will fall heaviest on Black women and expects, if abortion is criminalized and states begin prosecuting people who terminate pregnancies, poor people of color will be arrested and convicted at higher rates than their white counterparts
Far-Reaching Implications of Roe v. Wade’s Demise w/ Khiara Bridges, Michelle Oberman
Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on the Majority Report to discuss the bombshell leaked US Supreme Court brief from Justice Alito that would overturn Roe V. Wade
Where Roe went wrong: A sweeping new abortion right built on a shaky legal foundation
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the anti-abortion movement has organized around Roe v Wade, but very few people have read it
A ‘shattering blow’: East Bay leaders react to Supreme Court Roe v. Wade draft
Oaklandside notes that Professor Khiara M. Bridges sounded the alarm in March over the impending loss of abortion protections, and how they would impact vulnerable people
Supreme Court teed up for major decisions over next two months
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says a decision against abortion rights would come down hardest on people who do not have the ability or means to travel where an abortion would be available and the only source of optimism may be in the likelihood that the Supreme Court’s decision will sort of spur activism
No, this California bill wouldn’t allow mothers to kill their children after they’re born
Professor Khiara Bridges debunks Facebook posts claiming California lawmakers proposed a bill that would allow mothers to kill their babies up to 7 days after birth
The Nomination Black Women Have Been Waiting For
Professor Khiara M. Bridges explains the personal impact of the implication, when President Biden announced his intention to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, that there was no one qualified
Berkeley Voices: ‘The past will be present when Roe falls’
Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on the Berkeley Voices podcast to discuss the history of reproductive rights in the U.S., what’s at stake when Roe v. Wade is overturned and why we should expand our fight for reproductive justice
What Roe v. Wade Means for All of Us
Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on the GOOP podcast in which she explains that the Supreme Court could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade and what this decision could mean for women’s constitutional rights
Column: Are Abortion Rights Just for Privileged Careerists?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges shoots down the right’s attempts to portray abortion as a “career choice” explains what is really at stake for women
Podcast: Let’s Talk About Texts, Cheney
Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on the BBC’s Americast podcast to discuss Governor Newsom’s plan to use Texas SB8’s framework for gun control and why she believes it is more than just a PR stunt