Today, a number of women in large areas of the United States are without access to abortion care. The fundamental right that was embedded in Roe v. Wade and its progeny, to decide when, how and in what manner to have a family was overturned by the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, states have activated trigger bans, revived pre-Roe bans, and have been emboldened to introduce even more extreme state laws that seek to criminalize abortion providers and helpers, and interstate travel. At the federal level legislation has already been introduced to ban abortion nationally. The decision in Dobbs has not only taken away the right of women to make decisions about their bodily autonomy, lives, and families it has placed the heavy burden of this new legal landscape on patients who already face systemic barriers to accessing health care including, Black, Indigenous, People of color, immigrants, people with disabilities and those working to make ends meet – reinforcing societal inequities. The new standard promulgated in this case also stands poised to threaten many other individual rights we have grown to rely on for a just and equitable society. Join our panel of experts for a discussion about the impact this decision will have on women, marginalized communities, individual rights, and the rule of law.
Renee Chelian (Founder, Northland Family Planning Center)
Nicolas Kabat, ‘17 (Staff attorney, Center for Reproductive Rights)
Eboni Taylor, BA’08, MPP ‘13 (Michigan Executive Director, Mothering Justice)
