Reproductive Freedom from Roe to RBG and Beyond
Sunday, October 18 at 6pm. Register here.
This week, the nation is watching as Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, begins confirmation hearings. While Barrett's confirmation to the Court threatens to roll back a number of issues, ranging from healthcare to environmental protections to workers rights, it is her stance on abortion and the fate of Roe v. Wade that has garnered the nominee the most attention. Filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat, a justice widely recognized as a feminist icon, with a nominee who has publicly opposed abortion rights has seemed to many an an even greater blow to reproductive rights.
These developments present an opportunity for anyone committed to reproductive freedom to reflect on what struggles lie ahead. What might the end of Roe mean for abortion access in the U.S.? How successfully or not has Roe been in securing the right to abortion up to this point? What other barriers to meaningful reproductive freedom do our movements need to overcome? And what might we learn from past efforts committed to full reproductive autonomy for everyone?
Join ShutdownDC for a discussion about the future of reproductive rights, and what the current moment demands of us. Sara Matthiesen, a professor of history and WGSS at George Washington University and scholar of reproductive politics in the U.S., will join Hope Neyer for a conversation about reproductive freedom after RBG, a Barrett confirmation, and beyond.
Sara Matthiesen works on modern U.S. history, with an emphasis on gender, race, sexuality, and reproduction after 1945. Her current book, Reproduction Reconceived (University of California Press), examines battles over the right to family making since the 1970s. This project traces a number of debates between activists and public institutions in order to understand how family making was reconceptualized as a choice by the end of the 20th century. Matthiesen has taught courses on the history of reproductive politics, the history of criminal sexualities, feminist theory, and critical legal theory. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington she was a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University. Matthiesen also teaches in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the George Washington University.