Last month, the Harvard Law School Alliance for Reproductive Justice, a student group, staged a sit-in on campus to shine a light on the school’s lack of movement on reproductive justice offerings. They noted that students have been demanding coursework in reproductive rights for a decade, but that the school has done little more than to provide a few elective courses with visiting professors. In a demand letter submitted by the group to the administration last week, the students requested a reproductive justice clinic, at least one dedicated faculty member, and a curriculum. In their letter, the students also called out existing offerings at other law programs, which include:
New York University Law School Reproductive Justice Clinic and Advanced Reproductive Justice Clinic: This clinic trains students in the legal knowledge and skill required to secure fundamental liberty, justice, and equality for people across their reproductive lives, with a particular focus on pregnancy and birth. For current clinic work, students participate in advocacy and litigation around legal or policy frameworks restricting the autonomy and undermining the equality of pregnant, parenting, and birthing women; or punishing persons by virtue of their reproductive status.
Yale University Reproductive Rights and Justice Project: Students gain firsthand experience in fast-paced litigation and timely and strategic advocacy in a highly contested area of the law, confronting knotty procedural problems as well as substantive constitutional law questions in an area where established doctrine is under siege. Students advocate for reproductive health care providers and their patients, learning the vital importance of client confidentiality, as well as the impact of political movement strategy and management of press and public messaging.
Columbia University Center for Gender and Sexuality Law: This center's mission is to formulate new approaches to complex issues facing gender and sexual justice movements. The Center is the base for many research projects and initiatives focused on issues of gender, sexuality, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, and gender identity and expression in law, policy, and professional practice.
Cornell University Gender Justice Clinic: This clinic engages in local, national, and global efforts to address gender-based violence and discrimination. Issues covered include intimate partner violence, sexual assault, gender-based violence in institutional settings, discrimination at work and in the criminal legal system, discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, and reproductive rights, among others.
University of California – Berkeley Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice: This center is a multidisciplinary research center dedicated to issues of reproduction and designed to support law and policy solutions by bridging the academic-advocate divide.
UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy: This center is committed to training the reproductive law and policy leaders of tomorrow, while empowering the advocates and scholars of today. By creating a trusted hub on the West Coast for local and national convenings, the Center engages academics, community members, and practitioners to reimagine the landscape of reproductive health, law, and policy.