Reproductive Justice Beyond Abortion

As the fallout from   the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision continues to radically transform abortion   access in the United States, it is critical to focus on how abortion politics   and policies impact the legal regulation of pregnancy and parenting in the   United States especially in marginalized communities. Using the framework of   reproductive justice (RJ), this talk illustrates the connections between   abortion law, the criminalization of pregnancy, and histories of reproductive   hierarchies in the United States. Recognizing these connections reveals that   RJ remains a crucial and under-resourced movement whose goals will only be   achieved through a multi-pronged approach that centers the experiences of   those most impacted by the law’s intrusion into private reproductive choices   and realities.

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER:

Kimberly Mutcherson, J.D. Professor of Law Rutgers Law School

BIO: Kimberly Mutcherson is a Professor of Law and former Co-Dean at Rutgers Law School in Camden. She was the first woman,

the first Black person, and the first member of the LGBTQ community to be a Dean at Rutgers Law. Professor Mutcherson is a reproductive justice scholar whose work focuses on assisted reproduction and abortion among other topics. Cambridge University Press released her edited volume, Feminist Judgments: Reproductive Justice Rewritten in 2020.  In 2023, Professor Mutcherson

received the Trailblazer Award from the New Jersey Women Lawyer’s Association. She was a co-recipient of the 2021 M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers and the 2020 Association of American Law Schools inaugural Impact Award as one of the creators of the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse  Project. Also in 2021, the Rutgers Law School Black Law Students  Association honored her with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Champions of Social Justice Award and the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey celebrated her as a Distinguished Changemaker. Professor Mutcherson received the Center for Reproductive Rights Innovation in Scholarship Award in 2013, a Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2011, and the Women’s Law Caucus Faculty Appreciation Award in 2011 and 2014.  Professor Mutcherson has served as a Scholar in Residence at the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law School, a Senior Fellow/Sabbatical Visitor at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. from the University of  Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Columbia Law School.  Prior to entering academia, Professor Mutcherson was a consulting attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights and a Staff Attorney at the HIV Law Project.