Here’s a not so hypothetical hypo (yes, I’m studying for exams, so I am awash in hypos): an LSRJ chapter plans an event called “Sex Toys 101″ in which they plan to bring in an educator from a local shop to teach students about sexual health and pleasure and to facilitate a discussion about state laws around the country concerning the legality of sex toys. Two hours before the event, the school’s assistant dean cancels it, citing some school regulation that bans the selling or promotion of commercial products by a private company. Except that no one was promoting or selling anything — anything, that is, other than a sex-positive attitude. The student group yells censorship. The dean says it’s just a simple case of misapplication of school rules.

Sound far-fetched? Think again. This is going on right now at the University of Wisconsin. And the school’s LSRJ chapter is in the thick of it. The chain of events might make more sense in, say, Alabama or Texas — states with a recent history of outlawing sex toys — but in Wisconsin? So it is.

Luckily, it appears as if the law school community is seeing through the dean’s flimsy reasoning. From the blog of one professor: “That sure sounds reasonable, and it might be if it wasn’t bulls**t!”

And so it appears. The person who came to speak at the event provided the education as a public service. Experts from Babeland have done the same thing at NYU without incident. They don’t bring anything to sell or push students to patronize the store. Instead, they come to promote safe and healthy sexuality. Shouldn’t a graduate school with a student body made up wholly of adults want its students to have access to all the information necessary to make informed, empowered, and healthy sexual choices? Wouldn’t a law school want to nurture the ideals of the First Amendment?

Wisconsin LSRJ thinks so, and the group is organizing students on campus to protest the dean’s actions. The major league blogs have picked up. And the pressure is mounting. But I guess this is the fight we a society can expect when we allow the government to fund abstinence-only “education” programs, which plant the seed of our dysfunctional thinking about sexuality.

I (your regular blogger) am traveling this week, so in my stead we’ve got a great guest post from another law student leader in LSRJ….

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This is a slight departure from the current events/political slant usually taken by this blog.  It’s more personal in nature- I’ve been thinking about what the connection is between being a law student and being a reproductive justice advocate, and this is one of those connections for me.  The thought stemmed from a discussion I had with my law professor who led the legal clinic I worked in last semester, which provided services for low-income families:

Law professor: you have a really great, distinctive counseling style.  Where did that come from?
Lowly law student:  hmmm…actually, it came from working in an abortion clinic.

I started working in the clinic right after college, while trying to figure out the next steps in my life.  I was a counselor.  Every day the waiting room would fill with women and girls, mostly pregnant and not wanting to be.  I would meet with them after their lab work and sonogram confirmed the pregnancy and how far along they were.  It was my job to learn about their situations, discuss their options, and support their decision- in short, to be an advocate.  Here’s what it taught me that will make me a better lawyer:

•    Start with an open ended-question.  Both at the abortion clinic and the legal clinic, that was usually, “Could you tell me about what brought you here today?”  Allowing people to tell their story is incredibly important.
•    People in crisis need someone to be calm.  Having an abortion can be an incredibly stressful experience, and so can walking into a lawyer’s office for the first time.  Many women seeking an abortion, and many people seeking the help of a lawyer, have been living in perpetual crisis for some time.  Providing a measured, sympathetic presence is one of the most important things an advocate can do.
•    The best way to figure out what’s really going on is just to let someone talk, with an occasional question or reflection.  Immediately launching into a speech, a list of options, or interrupting someone is a sure way to mask the true situation and shut someone down.
•    A problem does not stand on its own.  A woman may come into the clinic because she is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, but may also be dealing with other issues, such as lack of child care, an ill parent, or an abusive relationship.  These problems may be keeping her from being able to deal with the immediate problem.  The same thing happens in legal situations- a client may come into a lawyer’s office for a divorce, a will, or to sell a piece of property, but is simultaneously dealing with multiple other issues.  It is the responsibility of the advocate to find out what else is going on, and address the problems together, because that’s how they got to be problems in the first place.
•    Time constraints are real.  Sometimes you might have only 15 minutes with a client.  However, when working at the abortion clinic I learned to never be afraid to ask the client to come back before taking action.  If your instinct says, “something isn’t right here,” you’re probably correct.  At the abortion clinic it often meant that someone (a boyfriend, a husband, a mother) was pressuring the woman into having an abortion, and she wasn’t ready yet.  In a legal context, it could mean that you haven’t had time to fully explore what is going on with the client, and if someone needs to end the meeting, you should make a follow-up appointment rather than rushing into something without all the information.
•    Sometimes you have to ask for help.  If there’s a situation you don’t know how to handle, there’s almost always someone to talk to about it.
•    This isn’t about the advocate, it’s about the client.  Trust their judgment.  They’re the one who has to live with the decision.

So there you go.  Want to be a better lawyer?  Work in an abortion clinic.

So, I just got back from LSRJ’s killer National Leadership Retreat, Justice Doesn’t Just Happen. And let me say, it rocked. It was an important — and powerful — reminder that reproductive justice is not going to just fall in our laps. We’ve got to make it happen. And we can. Some suggestions for how:* An event educating your law school community about abstinence only, perhaps with a mock abstinence-only class.* A panel on the use of shackles on women who give birth while incarcerated (made easy with one of LSRJ’s easy events in an envelope).* For those of you who are alums, taking on a pro-bono case representing a young woman seeking a judicial bypass of a state parental notification requirement before she can get an abortion.And stay tuned in to this blog for more ideas and reactions, as well as exciting guest-posts from others in the LSRJ community.

Last year, reproductive justice activists at Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) were informed that the school (which is Jesuit) would not fund internships at abortion rights advocacy organizations…after those students had already helped raise money to fund students’ summer placements. LSRJ flew into action, organizing protests and petitions. And their work paid off last week when the GULC administration reversed its policy.

From Georgetown Law student and LSRJ chapter head Rachel Spitzer:

On September 7, Dean Alexander Aleinikoff of Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) announced a new funding program guaranteeing summer stipends for all students who wish to participate in summer public interest internships, regardless of the issues on which their internships focus. This new program came in direct response to outcry across the campus last spring when GULC administrators refused to fund internships focused on reproductive rights. Student leaders, including the leadership of the Georgetown chapter of Law Students for Choice, worked with the administration for months, and were elated when the new program was announced. “This tremendous victory shows what we can accomplish when we work together with alumni, supportive student organizations, and faculty, and refuse to accept anything less than equal treatment,” said Joy Welan, president of LSFC at Georgetown in 2006-2007 [ed. note: and current LSRJ board member]. The new program is a major improvement because reproductive justice internships will get funded. In addition, the policy of guaranteed funding reduces barriers for all students who want to pursue public interest internships. The efforts of Georgetown LSFC and other supporters of educational freedom and reproductive rights have made it possible for future students to pursue public interest internships without subject-based discrimination.

The proof is in the pudding: on-campus advocacy can get things done. And fast.