| LW.12261 / LW.12262 Professor Sarah Burns Professor Sarah Wheeler Open to 2L and 3L students; LL.M.s if space is available* Maximum of 16 students |
Reproductive Justice Clinic (Fall) 6 credits** Advanced (Spring) 5 credits*** No pre or co-requisites. Constitutional Law strongly recommended; Criminal Procedure and Federal Courts recommended |
Introduction
The purpose of this clinic is to train 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. This is achieved 1) through 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; and 2) through legal and policy research and analysis to support community and movement efforts to establish new or better resources for menstruating, pregnant, birthing and parenting people.
Course Description
Reproductive justice means more than the right to abortion and contraception: it embraces a broader concept, opposing the use of reproduction—and, in particular, of pregnancy and parenting status—as a tool of oppression. The goal of reproductive justice is to preserve and expand the reproductive sphere as a space of unqualified liberty and equality. Reproductive justice encompasses both affirmative and reactive litigation and non-litigation strategies to achieve reproductive equality and fairness.
Fieldwork
The Clinic receives fieldwork from partnering organizations, including Pregnancy Justice (formerly National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW)); multiple projects within the ACLU, including the Reproductive Freedom Project (RFP), Women’s Rights Project (WRP), and National Prison Project (NPP); the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and the New York City Commission on Human Rights, among others.
Students in the Clinic work closely with partner legal organizations to gain insight into their respective working environments and strategies.
The Clinic also undertakes work on behalf of reproductive justice grassroots membership organizations, reproductive health care workers and researchers and/or individuals targeted for government intervention because of their reproductive status. The Clinic's work is on law- and policy-defining matters of national importance, frequently of national prominence. Case law work is not geographically restricted and may involve state or federal law, both constitutional and statutory. Since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Clinic has been deeply involved in advisory work related to substantive due process analysis.
Fieldwork projects run the gamut from legislative organizing, to regulatory advocacy, to media outreach and management, to pre-litigation research and assessment, to affirmative litigation in either direct services or impact capacities, and either representing a party to the litigation or as amicus curiae. Substantively, the projects may pertain to pregnancy justice, menstrual justice, and reproductive justice for all people. Some projects may focus specifically on people experiencing incarceration or otherwise involved with the carceral state.
Students interested in developing their legal research and writing will have an opportunity to do so by selecting fieldwork designated to have that focus. Some fieldwork will also enable students to develop lawyering skills other than research and writing.
The substantive content of fieldwork assignments will depend on the circumstances of particular cases. Elements of civil and criminal procedure and evidence are common, as are constitutional doctrines under the Bill of Rights. Students will also likely engage in statutory and regulatory interpretation and argument, and may work with federal court issues of procedure and justiciability in either habeas corpus or Section 1983 cases.
In past semesters, clinic students worked on the following matters, among many others. These projects are representative of the diversity of projects on the Clinic’s roster from time to time:
- Section 1983 suit in the Western District of Wisconsin as co-counsel on behalf of plaintiff. In this suit, the Clinic, NAPW, and local counsel represented Tamara Loertscher in a constitutional challenge to Wisconsin’s “Cocaine Mom” statute, under which she was prosecuted for alleged use of drugs and alcohol during her pregnancy. Students were involved in briefing at all stages of the case, including summary judgment briefing filed during the Fall 2016 semester, which resulted in a victory for the Clinic’s client in May 2017, and appellate briefing before the Seventh Circuit which resulted in a mootness finding.
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Research and draft memoranda and briefs supporting abortion regulation challenges to laws in multiple states on U.S. Constitutional and state law grounds.
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Advising city agencies on issues of reproductive rights and justice related to treatment of pregnant and parenting women receiving healthcare in New York City.
- Research and draft memoranda and briefs supporting defense of persons criminally charged for pregnancy or birth outcomes.
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Research and work supporting challenges to regulation of families in the name of child protection.
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Draft amicus briefs in reproductive rights cases of national importance, including Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt and Zubik v. Burwell, as well as amicus briefs in cases before state and federal appellate courts.
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Regularly advise the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project on potential litigation to expand access to abortion, including research that resulted in the filing of a federal case in Maine challenging the state’s law excluding highly trained advanced practice clinicians from providing abortions.
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Represented human rights clinics, nonprofits, and law professors in an amicus brief to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in a case challenging the application of El Salvador’s complete criminal abortion ban to women and girls from poor and marginalized backgrounds who were prosecuted for illegal abortion or homicide for experiencing a miscarriage or obstetric emergency.
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Develop litigation and other advocacy strategies to challenge state criminal and civil child welfare laws that seek to punish women for their pregnancy.
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Investigated the discriminatory enforcement of municipal nuisance ordinances against domestic violence (DV) survivors and low-income communities of color, in collaboration with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and the New York Civil Liberties Union. Nuisance ordinances penalize landlords when tenants make a certain number of calls to the police or emergency services. These ordinances imperil DV survivors (and vulnerable communities more generally) by undermining their access to stable housing and their right to seek protection and assistance from the police, among other rights.
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Supported witnesses preparing and submitting testimony before a national tribunal sponsored by grassroots Birth Justice organizations and filing complaints regarding shortfalls in birthing health care with federal agencies.
Seminar
Fieldwork is supported and reinforced by a weekly seminar that provides background education in litigation practice and project-specific support. Students learn about and weigh-in on one another’s specific projects with an emphasis on goals and strategy. The Clinic also uses the seminar period to expose students to reproductive justice issues and legal controversies not covered by the specific fieldwork of the given semester.
Application Procedure
Students who are interested in applying should submit the standard application, resume and transcript online via CAMS. Applicants should submit as lengthy a response to Question 4 of the standard application as they feel necessary and should ignore the 300-word limit. If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact the Clinic assistant Kamille Claudel-Bronson by email or phone at 212-998-6375.
Faculty will hold one or more information sessions during the application period. Details by e-mail will go to applicants once the application deadline has closed.
Reproductive Justice Clinic - Advanced – Spring Semester
The Fall 2023 or Fall 2024 Clinic is usually required in order to take the Spring 2025 Advanced Clinic, but in pre-approved circumstances JD or LL.M. students may apply to the Spring 2025 Advanced Reproductive Justice Clinic without having taken the Fall 2023 or Fall 2024 Reproductive Justice Clinic. JDs interested in the Advanced Clinic option should raise it in their application to the Fall clinic. A demonstrated interest in reproductive justice is particularly valued.
The Advanced clinic involves a 2-credit seminar and 3 fieldwork credits. The Advanced Clinic will be taught by Professors Sarah Burns and Sarah Wheeler in Spring 2025. Students applying to the Reproductive Justice Clinic who are interested in a year-long experience should state this in their initial application to the clinic so their commitment to and interest in year-long work can be considered and accommodated in the admission process. Students who took the Reproductive Justice Clinic in a previous academic year qualify for the Advanced Clinic. If you were enrolled in a fall semester of the Clinic in a prior year and want to take the Advanced Clinic in a separate academic year, please contact the instructors directly and do not apply through CAMS. If you are an LL.M. student seeking to take the Advanced semester only, please submit an application via CAMS and also write to the instructors.
Note for LL.M.s
LL.M. students may apply to the Spring 2025 Reproductive Justice Clinic - Advanced without having taken the Fall 2024 Reproductive Justice Clinic. LL.M. students selected for the Advanced Clinic who have not taken an earlier fall clinic will receive an intensive introduction to the Reproductive Justice framework and the Clinic's work at the start of the Spring semester. Prior work or educational experience involving reproductive rights, health, or justice; anti-discrimination law; or gender justice is helpful but not required.
Student Contacts
Interested students should speak to the following current and former clinic students.
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2023-24 Clinic Members |
2022-23 Clinic Members
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* Consult the Clinics Open to LL.M. Students page to see if the clinic is available to LL.M.s in the current year.
** 6 credits include 3 clinical (fieldwork) credits and 3 academic seminar credits.
*** 5 credits include 3 clinical (fieldwork) credits and 2 academic seminar credits.