Reproductive Justice Post Dobbs: It’s Not Just Abortion

Loretta J. Ross is a Professor at Smith College in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender where she teaches courses on white supremacy, human rights, and Calling In the Call Out culture. Loretta also is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellow, Class of 2022, for her work as an advocate of Reproductive Justice and Human Rights. 

Loretta was the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (2005-2012) and co-created the theory of Reproductive Justice. Loretta was National Co-Director of April 25, 2004, March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history at that time. She founded the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia,  launched the Women of Color Program for the National Organization for Women (NOW), and was the national program director of the National Black Women’s Health Project. One of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center, Loretta was the third Executive Director of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center.

Lynn M. Paltrow, JD, (she/her/hers) founded National Advocates for Pregnant Women in 2001. Ms. Paltrow is a graduate of Cornell University and New York University School of Law. She has worked on numerous cases challenging restrictions on the right to choose abortion as well cases opposing the prosecution and punishment of pregnant women seeking to continue their pregnancies to term. She is a frequent guest lecturer and writer for popular press, law reviews, and peer-reviewed journals. She is a Gemini and mother of twins. 

Georgana Hanson serves as the interim president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, where she was formerly the vice president of public policy and regulatory affairs. PPESA is the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that represents the 5 Planned Parenthood affiliates in New York. In her role, Georgana leads the organization’s legislative efforts to protect and advance the reproductive and sexual health and rights of all New Yorkers. Georgana loves to spend time outdoors camping and hiking and finds immense joy in raising two budding activists.

Speaker: Elizabeth R. Kukura, Associate Professor of Law, Thomas Kline School of Law, Drexel University

Topic:  The Impact of Medical System Structures and Legal Policy on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health Outcomes 

Biography: Professor Kukura’s research explores the intersections of health law and gender, with a particular focus on reproductive health and the law and politics of childbirth. Her scholarship examines laws and policies that impact healthcare decision-making and the role of race, class, gender, and sexuality in shaping health care access, experiences, and outcomes. 

She received her JD from New York University School of Law, an LLM from Temple University Beasley School of Law and an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Prior to joining the Drexel faculty, she taught at Temple University in the law and medical schools.

Speaker: Lucinda M. Finley, Frank Raichle Professor of Law, University at Buffalo School of Law

Topic: The Impact of Restrictive Abortion Laws on the Medical Standard of Care and Women’s Health

Biography: Professor Finley researches and teaches on reproductive rights and justice, gender and the law, tort law, and the First Amendment.  She is known for groundbreaking research on gender equity issues in tort law, and is the co-author of Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Torts Opinions, published by Cambridge University Press, a book that reconsiders leading tort law cases from a feminist jurisprudence perspective. 

She is also the co-author of the 3rd and 4th editions of  Tort Law and Practice, a leading law school casebook. She represented WNY abortion providers in long-running federal court litigation against obstructive protestors, and successfully defended in the US Supreme Court an injunction that set limits of the location and types of protest activity at reproductive health facilities.

She has a J.D. from Columbia University Law School, and prior to joining the UB faculty she was on the faculty of Yale Law School and has also taught at Cornell, DePaul, and the University of Sydney.

Speaker: Rachel Rebouche, Dean and James E. Beasley Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law

Topic: The “Abortion Pill” Wars:  Legal efforts to ban the use or mailing of mifepristone in the aftermath of Dobbs

Biography: Dean Rebouché is a leading scholar in reproductive health law and family law. She is an author of Governance Feminism: An Introduction and an editor of Governance Feminism: Notes from the Field. She is also the editor of Feminist Judgments: Family Law Opinions Rewritten, published by Cambridge University Press, and an author of the sixth edition of the casebook, Family Law. 

Dean Rebouché has served as a co-investigator on two grant-funded research projects related to reproductive health, one housed at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health and another funded by the World Health Organization. Her recent research also includes articles in law reviews and in peer-reviewed journals on abortion law, relational contracts, gestational surrogacy, prenatal genetic testing and genetic counseling, collaborative divorce, parental involvement laws, and international reproductive rights. Dean Rebouché received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an LL.M. from Queen’s University, Belfast.

Speaker: Elias Fox Bova Schmidt, Fellow with the Center for Reproductive Rights

Topic: The Implications of Dobbs on Health Access, Equity, and Justice for LGBTQ+ People

Biography: Elias Schmidt has a J.D. and M.S.W. from the University at Buffalo, and after he completed these dual degree programs he was awarded a prestigious Reproductive Justice Fellowship with If/When/How for 2022-23, during which he worked with SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW! in Atlanta, Gerogia. After completing that fellowship, he was awarded a highly selective fellowship starting in September 2023 with the Center for Reproductive Rights, a leading legal advocacy and litigation organization.

He focuses his reproductive justice work on the reproductive justice needs of transmasculine people. His advocacy and legal work focuses on elevating the voices of transmasculine people of color and disabled transmasculine people, drawing attention to and working to address transmasculine reproductive justice needs, and assist in reconciling how trans men and transmasculine people fit into the broader social and political conversations surrounding reproductive justice topics that generally are understood as “(cis) (white) women’s issues.”

He is a recognized descendant of the Seneca Nation, and he considers the needs and voices of indigenous people in all his work.  He has written about the implications of the Indian Child Welfare Act for reproductive justice for indigenous people, and also about the impact of Dobb’s reversal of Roe v. Wade on reproductive justice for transmasculine people. In law school, he was very active on campus, serving as the first openly trans President of OUTLaw and the founder and Co-President of UB’s Native American Law Students Association chapter.

Sarah L. Berga, MD is Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo SUNY, President of UBMD Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Medical Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women’s Health Program Development (Service Line) for Oishei Children’s Hospital and Kaleida Health.

Dr. Berga took her BAS as an Echols Scholar from the University of Virginia in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Sexual Dimorphism and Gender Asymmetry. She obtained her MD at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and then completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard University followed by a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

Dr. Berga served as Director, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, University of Utah, 2018-2020; Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Executive Director of Women’s Health Service Line at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina from 2011 to 2018; Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics and Psychiatry, and Chair of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia from 2003 to 2011; and was a tenured faculty member in Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2003.

Her numerous leadership positions include President of SGI (now Society for Reproductive Investigation) and Society of Humanism in Medicine and President-Elect of the American Gynecologic Society; Member of the Board of Directors of Emory Healthcare, University of Pittsburgh Physicians, and American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). Awards include the Society for Gynecologic Investigation (SGI, now SRI) President’s Achievement Award (2000), the Berthold Medal of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Endokrinologie (2005), and the SRI (SGI) DeCherney Society Lifetime Distinguished Service Award (2020). She currently serves on the Council of Society of Reproductive Investigation (SRI, formerly SGI), Board of the International Society of Gynecologic Endocrinology and the Board of Trustees of Salem Academy and College, the first women’s college in America founded in 1772.

Her research interests include neuroendocrine mechanisms mediating stress-induced reproductive compromise and understanding the impact of sex hormones on brain health using state-of-the-art neuroimaging in human and monkey models. She was continuously funded by NIH for over 35 years. Her multidisciplinary research team pioneered the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for stress-induced anovulation. Her clinical interests include IVF, infertility, reproductive hypothalamic amenorrhea, polycystic ovary syndrome, hormonal management of perimenopause, menopause, and endometriosis, and gender-affirming hormone therapy. Her contributions include more than 160 peer-reviewed publications, 90 chapters and books, and 385 national and international speaking engagements. Many of her former residents and fellows are now in leadership positions nationally and internationally.

Thaddeus P. Waters, MD, is the inaugural Amol S. Lele, MD Professor and Chief of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

A maternal-fetal medicine specialist, Waters completed his medical degree and residency at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia and his fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. He also serves as the medical director for maternal-fetal medicine and the regional perinatal program at Oishei Children’s Hospital.

He is a member of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Shannon Johns, CD (DONA), CLC, CBE, is the owner and founder of Calming Nature Doula Service and Center. A local Doula organization that has offered support from Certified and Community Birth Doulas, Postpartum Doulas, Childbirth Educators, Certified Lactation Counselors, and Breastfeeding Peer counselors, to hundreds of families in Erie, Niagara, and Wyoming counties.

Shannon’s journey to becoming a Doula started well before her official DONA training. As a mother to six, and having gone through labor with and without support, Shannon wanted to be able to provide a service to a community of women that desperately needed the support, but were not financially in a position to have that support. Through her lived experience Shannon began helping the women in her circle as they navigated their own birth experiences. Encouraging and telling them what worked for her during labor could also work for them. It wasn't until 2014 that she officially trained with DONA International and later became a Certified Birth Doula. Shannon made the decision to fully commit to her calling in the world of birth work in 2018 when she left her full-time job in banking to focus on Doula work. She solidified this commitment to maternal health and well-being by offering Doula trainings and a full mentoring program to new and inexperienced Doulas that were looking to enhance their careers as Birth Doulas. 

In addition to being a Certified Doula, Shannon has also taken numerous other trainings and certification, including becoming a Evidence based instructor, Childbirth Educator and Certified Lactation Counselor, allowing her to present Evidence Based information, education and guidance to families who may not have received the education or support otherwise. In 2019, Shannon accepted a position at Catholic and a community Childbirth educator to conduct prenatal education classes at three of Catholic Health hospitals and at Calming Nature. 

Additionally in 2019, Shannon played a pivotal role in the introduction and training of new Doulas for the New York State Doula Pilot program. This pilot program was an initiative from the NYS initiative to target maternal mortality and reduce racial disparities in health outcomes by allowing Doulas to bill medicaid. 

Not one to ever stop striving for excellence, in 2020, amongst the midst of a pandemic, she founded the Buffalo’s Breastfeeding Sisters Program. In partnership with REACH Buffalo, this program is in support of the CDC’s DNAPO initiative to support and promote breastfeeding in the African American community. The program serves as a peer support program for black women wanting to connect with other black women who are or plan to breastfeed. The goal of this program is to provide a safe and welcoming space to educate and truly support African American women with their breastfeeding journey. 

Since that time it has expanded once again to a 501c3 non-profit to become a multi purpose maternal care center to educate and assist the families before, during and after birth. Since its inception, services continue to expand and offer maternal care practice offering a range of services around childbirth, breastfeeding and lactation support services.

Shannon’s goal is to help reduce the infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates, increase the breastfeeding rate, eliminate the inequalities and racial disparities in BIPOC communities.

Marilyn A. Kacica, MD, MPH, FAAP

Medical Director, Division of Family Health

New York State Department of Health

Albany, NY

Dr. Kacica is the Medical Director of the Division of Family Health at the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and a Clinical Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University at Albany School of Public Health. Dr. Kacica is a Pediatrician with subspecialties in Infectious Disease and Preventive Medicine. Dr Kacica leads the New York State Perinatal Quality Collaborative, the Maternal Mortality Review Initiative and participates in policy, program planning and evaluation for the Title V program addressing the needs of NYS’s maternal and child health populations.