Reproductive Justice NOW!  

It is no secret that reproductive rights and access to reproductive health care are in serious peril. The Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision that legalizes abortion at the federal level. If it does, the legality of abortion will be determined by individual U.S. states, twenty-six of which are certain or likely to ban abortion. We know who will bear the brunt of these bans: poor women, women of color, and women in rural areas. Some states—such as Missouri—are currently attempting to pass laws that will restrict out-of-state travel for abortions and that will make shipping or receiving abortion medication a felony drug trafficking offense.  

What can we do to push back on these reproductive injustices and move toward reproductive justice NOW?!  

This is the question the 2022 Gensler Family Symposium will address. Considering the contemporary assault on abortion rights and access, the Symposium will focus specifically on abortion justice. Speakers will address: the history of the reproductive justice movement; contemporary reproductive concerns beyond the legal right to abortion (such as crisis pregnancy centers and how they raise data privacy concerns); the possibilities of medication abortion for circumventing state laws; reproductive technologies; and how the insights we can gain from the history of Californians traveling to Mexico for abortions pre-Roe can help us to prepare for the “abortion tourism” of the near future.  

We hope you will join us! 

Monday, April 18 – Sunday April 24, Davis Library Atrium

Photo exhibition: “Focus on Abortion: Americans Share Their Stories”

Monday, April 18, 12:15 p.m.: Conversation with Photographer Roslyn Banish, Library 140

Roslyn Banish collected stories from a diverse range of people who have experienced abortion or been close to someone who experienced abortion. With this photography exhibit, Banish aims to mitigate the profound stigma surrounding abortion—a procedure one in four women in the U.S. will obtain.

Recording for the event here:  

https://vimeo.com/703346473

Thursday, April 21, 5-6:30 p.m.: Robert A. Jones Conference Room or on Zoom:

Virtual Keynote Conversation between Loretta J. Ross and Carrie N. Baker facilitated by Dr. Carly Thomsen (GSFS). “Abortion and Childbirth in a Post-Roe World:” by Carrie N. Baker and “Beyond Abortion: Reproductive Futurism:” by Loretta J. Ross.

Register for the event here:  https://middlebury.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0pceqorz0sE9IKq9ylawO5lDJS3XgTSWgm

Read more about these events on their individual blog posts.

Sponsored by the Gensler Family Fund, the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and the Feminist Resource Center at Chellis House 

Photo exhibition: “Focus on Abortion: Americans Share Their Stories”

Roslyn Banish collected stories from a diverse range of people who have experienced abortion or been close to someone who experienced abortion. With this photography exhibit, Banish aims to mitigate the profound stigma surrounding abortion—a procedure one in four women in the U.S. will obtain.

https://middlebury.zoom.us/j/99463016696?pwd=Z2lCb3I3ODR6L0c0cTFHRis4bUhxQT09, Password: 536738

Virtual Keynote Conversation between Loretta J. Ross and Carrie N. Baker facilitated by Dr. Carly Thomsen (GSFS)

“Abortion and Childbirth in a Post-Roe World:” by Carrie N. Baker

“Beyond Abortion: Reproductive Futurism:” by Loretta J. Ross.

Loretta J. Ross is an Associate Professor at Smith College. An activist, public intellectual, and scholar, she started her career in activism and social change in the 1970s. She worked for organizations such as the National Football League Players’ Association, the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Black Women’s Health Project, the Center for Democratic Renewal (National Anti-Klan Network), the National Center for Human Rights Education, and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective until retiring as an organizer in 2012 to teach about activism. 

Carrie N. Baker, J.D., Ph.D. is the Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Chair of American Studies and a professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. Her scholarly research centers on the intersections of gender and race in law and policy, focusing in particular on sexual harassment, sex trafficking, and reproductive health, rights and justice. She is a regular writer and contributing editor at Ms. magazine, where she serves as co-chair of the Ms. Committee of Scholars, and she has a monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Massachusetts). She is co-editing a forthcoming book, Public Feminisms: From Academy to Community (Lever Press, 2022), with Aviva Dove-Viebahn.

Stay tuned for a lecture focused on global reproductive justice organized by IGS, GSFS, and Chellis House: Feminist Resource Center for the Juana Gamero de Coca Day of Learning. This event will be part of the Gensler Symposium.