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November 08, 2024

Criminalizing Birthing Outcomes in a Post-Dobbs World

From the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 until Dobbs decision in 2022, there were more than 1,800 cases across the country in which law enforcement, prosecutors, healthcare workers, family regulation workers, and judges have deprived pregnant people of their constitutional right under the guise of protecting “unborn life.” A recent report documents how the growing popularity of the concept of “fetal personhood” in anti-abortion rhetoric and the reliance on substance use allegations are being used to charge pregnant people with criminal child neglect or endangerment, contributing to the rise in pregnancy criminalization since 2006. Even before Dobbs, people have been increasingly criminalized for their pregnancies, regardless of birth outcome. Join our experts as they discuss the who and why birthing people are being criminalized, the impact of birth people and their communities, and access to maternal healthcare.

Date: Friday, November 8, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET

This presentation is the fourth installment in a multi-part In Conversation Series focused on the ABA's Reproductive Rights Initiative. Learn more at ambar.org/reprorights.

Co-Sponsors:    ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Center for Reproductive Rights,   Santa Clara County Bar Association’s Women Lawyers Section

The content of this program does not meet requirements for continuing legal education (CLE) accreditation. You will not receive CLE credit for watching.

Panelists

  •  Kulsoom Ijaz – Senior Staff Attorney, Pregnancy Justice 
  •  Dr. Mishka Terplan – Medical Director and Senior Research Scientist – Friends Research Institute

Moderator

  • Nicolle Vasquez del Favero – Member, Reproductive Rights Initiative, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice; Assistant Counsel, Naval Facilities Engineering and Systems Command, Dept of the Navy, Office of the General Counsel

Resources

Unpacking Fetal Personhood: The Radical Tool That Undermines Reproductive Justice | Pregnancy Justice
September 2024

Pregnancy As a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs | Pregnancy Justice
September 2024 | By Wendy A. Bach and Madalyn K. Wasilczuk

Medical Professional Reports and Child Welfare System Infant Investigations: An Analysis of National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System Data | Health Equity
By Frank Edwards, Sarah C.M. Roberts,2Kathleen S. Kenny, Mical Raz, Matty Lichtenstein, and Mishka Terplan

Test or Talk Empiric Bias and Epistemic Injustice
By Mishka Terplan, MD, MPH

Stopping Criminalization at the BedsideThe Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
By Wendy A. Bach and Mishka Terplan

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