Cross-posted from Ms. JD. 

Mariko Miki, LSRJ Director of Academic & Professional Programs

The debate over reproductive rights –especially abortion rights— continues to dominate the political, legal, and social landscape in the U.S.  At the federal level, Congress recently attempted to defund Planned Parenthood, and abortion and contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act remains embattled. At the state level, between January and July 2011 alone, legislatures in 19 states passed 80 laws restricting abortion access; in no other year between 1985 and 2011 have states enacted so many restrictions. With the 2012 presidential election looming, women’s health will once again become a hot-button issue.

Reproductive rights are on everyone’s mind, but how many politicians, policy makers, and judges actually understand the complex interplay of privacy and equality jurisprudence with social issues such as poverty, education, and lack of access to health care? Not many, as the new Course Survey conducted by Law Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ) reveals. Although many of the country’s leaders are trained as lawyers, very few have had formal education in reproductive rights law & justice.

Only one in five American Bar Association-approved law schools have offered a course in reproductive rights law & justice during the last eight years. All in all, 39 law schools have offered just 51 classes focused on issues like abortion, reproduction, and sexual rights since 2003.  This means that most law school graduates never have the opportunity to delve deeply into reproductive rights jurisprudence, let alone have the chance to explore how issues of contraception, IVF, family formation, birthing rights, infant and maternal mortality, welfare caps, drug policy, rape, and domestic violence intersect under aReproductive Justice framework.

The causes for the lack of reproductive rights law & justice courses vary: the subject matter is not yet fully accepted as a integral part of legal curricula; no reproductive rights case law text book currently exists for professors to teach with; some scholars believe that seminal cases like Roe v. Wade were erroneously decided; and some law school administrations are hostile to the subject matter or unconvinced of the student demand.

Since 2003, LSRJ has worked to overcome these obstacles to help students organize and campaign for reproductive rights law & justice courses to be taught on their campuses. So far, 31% of all reproductive rights law & justice courses taught in the last eight years have resulted from student advocacy through LSRJ chapter campaigns. Also encouraging, 27 unique courses were offered during the 2010-11 academic year, the highest number of offerings during any academic year to date and almost three times as many as the previous year. Finally, seven of the top ten law schools in the U.S. have offered courses in reproductive rights law & justice.

While the recent upsurge in course offerings marks a growing trend welcomed by scholars, students, and advocates who support these critical learning opportunities, there is still a long way to go before reproductive rights law & justice issues are integrated into mainstream legal curricula.  The vast majority of law schools still lack a reproductive rights law & justice course. LSRJ continues to combat this dearth of opportunities by leading the charge for more courses through the Course Campaign Working Group and by providing supplemental educational materials to students and instructors. To learn about how to get involved in establishing a course at your law school, please contactinfo@LSRJ.org.

For more about the importance of educating and training tomorrow’s lawyers about reproductive rights law & justice, see Defending Your Rights? Study Finds Few Law Schools Offer Training in Reproductive Justice on RH Reality Check.  For a law student’s perspective on successfully campaigning for a reproductive rights law & justice course, read Campaigning for an RJ Course: The Student Perspective on LSRJ’s blog, Repossess Reproductive Rights.

I had the wonderful privilege of spending last Thursday, July 1, 2010, in the California Capitol with a prominent reproductive health lobbyist.   After arriving in Sacramento via the beautifully scenic Amtrak train ride, we drove downtown near the Capitol where it was lunchtime and all the politicos were chatting, lunching and doing their politics thing.  While most people have heard of “lobbyists” or “lobbying,” what goes into the day to day work of this profession is something that many don’t know about.  I was able to experience even a few hours of that and it is a demanding profession.

Lobbying is a form of advocacy with the intention of influencing decisions made by legislators.  It is advocating on behalf of a client, whether it be an individual, organization or corporation.  The term “lobbying” comes from the fact that lobbyists used to stand in the areas, or “lobbies,” outside the House or Senate chambers in order to chat with legislators as they come to or from chambers or to await legislative decisions.

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Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in a really interesting webinar about Emergency Contraception with Dr. James Trussell, a leading researcher in contraceptive efficacy and contraceptive methods. The webinar was focused on updates on research about emergency contraception and some of its reasons for failure, as well as information about the newest EC option, Ella, which was recently approved by an advisory committee to the FDA. Much of the information presented related to the participants of the studies that were done to calculate the effectiveness of EC.

One of the most interesting aspects of the presentation was actually the question and answer period at the end of the presentation.  The main audience of this webinar turned out to be health care providers and medical professionals who counseled women about emergency contraception options across the country and even Canada. The questions that they asked Dr. Trussell reminded me that there are so many unique situations that people can find themselves in. Some expressed concern about their patient’s ability to access medication that is not available over-the-counter in rural areas, being able to afford emergency contraception without insurance, and whether using emergency contraception could interfere with breast-feeding. It was great to hear so many people who would be able to provide them with accurate information in a non-judgmental setting.  Since the announcement of the FDA’s consideration of Ella, the amount of misinformation represented on blogs, websites and news reports reminds me how important it is to have accurate, fact-based information from professionals readily available. It hopeful to know that many of the people giving advice and counsel to young women have taken the time to educate themselves on the facts of emergency contraception from one of the leading experts in the field.

Jeryl Hayes

The first time I answered the question, “Nice to meet you. What do you do?” with the complete, whole truth I found it hard to breathe. I waited to see the faces change, the hand pull away. That was because, until that moment, when I first met people, I never revealed my full job description. To my relief, no one attacked me, judged me, or even looked at me strangely. I didn’t lie, but I definitely had perfected a watered down, vague answer, a safe answer, to that dreaded question. However this time, taking a deep breath, I declared proudly, “I work in women’s reproductive healthcare. I am a business manager for offices that provide reproductive health care and we specialize in abortion care.” Huge sigh of relief.

Why I couldn’t just say this from the beginning was something that I had reflected on constantly since my job had transformed into a career. I was certainly not embarrassed about what I had chosen to do every day for a living. In fact, in direct contrast, I was (and am) proud to put my values in action working in a field about which I care deeply and for a cause I believe in, heart and soul. However, my beliefs regarding women’s healthcare did not form based on the field I work in, but rather from where I grew up.

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I am not a worthless piece of trash, but rather a valuable asset to people, families, the community—and the world. I hope that my story will help to alleviate the disgraceful practice of shackling women during labor, which in turn will help alleviate the negative behaviors of prison guards and hospital staff toward women who give birth while incarcerated.—Kimberly Mays

As of this spring, thanks to women like Kimberly Mays and fellow reproductive justice advocates across the state, Washington state can boast two large victories against the practice of shackling pregnant incarcerated women. On March 23, 2010, the Governor signed into law HB 2747 which bans the use of restraints on female inmates in labor or post-partum recovery, making Washington only the 7^th state in the nation to pass anti-shackling legislation. Just a couple of weeks ago, Legal Voice, a women’s rights organization based out a of Seattle, sent a press-release confirming that on May 3, 2010, the federal district court agreed that shackling laboring women violates the Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The Department of Corrections also agreed to pay plaintiff, Casandra Brawley, $125,000 to settle her lawsuit. But, nationwide, jails and prisons and immigration detention centers continue to put non-violent women in restraints such as leg irons and wrist shackles during childbirth. Pregnant women are shackled on the way to the hospital, while they are giving birth, and during recovery.

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Having just returned from the 2010 CLPP conference, From Abortion to Rights to Social Justice:  Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom, at Hampshire College this past weekend, my head is buzzing with new ideas, inspiring words, and the sense of being part of something much larger…a movement with an important history and a hopeful future—at least judging by the number of engaged young people attending and leading this major convening of reproductive justice activists.  Workshops, trainings, and plenary panels spread across three days covered a wide range of issues—including economic justice, racial equality, freedom from violence, immigrant rights, climate justice, health care reform, and LGBTQ rights—all of which inform our understandings of what true reproductive justice will look like.

One of the most powerful aspects of the experience for me was connecting with people who do RJ work in many different capacities—as grassroots organizers and educators, as medical professionals and professional activists, as college students and as parents.  Spending much of my time working with law students and lawyers, it’s all too easy to get used to speaking in certain ways and hearing the same kinds of voices in my daily conversations.  (more…)

On April 1, 2009, I stood in front of a room full of my friends and peers, lured by the promise of cookies and baked goods, and timidly proclaimed that I was beginning a new chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ) at our school, Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL) in San Diego

Coming upon LSRJ at the time that I did was a matter of fate.  I started playing roller derby during my first year of law school as a stress reliever.  Within about nine months of joining the local league, I was sitting on the sidelines with a pulled muscle and spending a significant amount of time undergoing rehabilitation.  It suddenly dawned on me that I was halfway through law school and all I had to show for it were some healing bruises and a weak groin.  I met with my career counselor who was aware that I was interested in practicing surrogacy and family formation law.  In her research prior to our meeting, she came across an organization called Law Students for Reproductive Justice.  She asked if I had heard of it—I hadn’t.  She navigated to the fact sheets located on LSRJ’s webpage and showed me that this organization focused on a myriad issues including assisted reproductive technology.  This piqued my curiosity so I went home and researched LSRJ.  I sent an inquiry to the national office, and the TJSL Chapter was born. (more…)

Call it beginner’s luck:  my first year in law school and the first-ever Law Students for Reproductive Justice South Regional conference just so happen to coincide, and for one fruitful day, my activist, academic, and professional worlds were temporarily united.  The conference started with presentations by two women near and dear to my RJ-heart:  Heidi Williamson of Sistersong and Tonya Williams of SPARK Reproductive Justice Now.

Anyone wondering about whether the RJ movement is alive and kicking in the south had their fears alleviated by the time these remarkable women finished speaking.  Both Ms. Williamson and Dr. Williams did a fantastic job of explaining the concept of reproductive justice, and they did an even better job of explaining the significance the term has in the South, where reproductive justice work faces particular challenges. (more…)

As I sat in the audience at Friday’s symposium on “Law, Gender & Citizenship: Contemporary Issues for American Indians and American Immigrants,” I was shocked by what I learned about the endemic sexual violence perpetrated against Native American women in the United States.  Data indicates that a minimum of one out of three Native American women has been the victim of sexual violence.  One of the speakers shared that in conducting her research she had yet to talk with a Native American woman who had not been the victim of sexual violence.  Research further shows that 80% of perpetrators of these crimes are non-Native American persons.  High rates of women being violently sexually assaulted by men not of her ethnic or racial group, like this, are the type of statistics I have come to associate with war zones rather than common life experiences. 

The violence perpetrated against Native American women, however, is only one of the many offenses carried out against them.  The U.S. government under the responsibilities assigned to Indian Health Services (HIS) is responsible for providing all health care services Native American Indians.  However, the U.S. government and IHS have failed to meet this mandate.  Native American Indians must often travel long distances to reach health facilities whose services are limited.  (more…)

Last weekend I went to the posh city of Atlanta, GA and was greeted by the wonderful ladies of Georgia State University College of Law’s LSRJ chapter. I want send a special thank you to my host Sarah Scott…she WAS AWESOME!!!

The South Regional Conference discussed issues about human trafficking, Reproductive Justice Asylum cases and LGBT issues within Immigration Law.

I thank you for the wonderful panel of speakers from SisterSong, Alia El Sawi, Dazon Dixon Diallo, our very own Jill Adams just to name a few. These ladies brought knowledge and showed commitment to the LSRJ struggle.

I am truly excited about the work that needs to be done in the southern region! It is most comforting to know that there are committed men and women gaining a legal education and equipping ourselves with tools to adequately combat these issues.

Law school as we all know is hard, but it’s encouraging to know we share a common goal.  I wish everyone a safe spring break and thank you for taking the time out to read this blog.

Jennifer Ngoie