The Collateral Damage of Dobbs on Women’s Health: Beyond Abortion Care
Friday, March 14, 2025 | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. ET
NYU School of Law, D'Agostino Hall, Lipton Hall
108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012
REGISTER
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it upended half a century of established jurisprudence – leaving in its wake a convoluted legal landscape, and eliminating access to vital reproductive care for millions. The fallout includes a wider range of health issues affecting women undergoing cancer treatment, using assisted fertility, entering menopause, and more. Our symposium will address the new risks, challenges, and potential windows for progress.
Panelists include BWLC Fellows-in-Residence Jennifer S. Hendricks, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Juvenile and Family Law Program at Colorado Law and Dr. Sharon Malone, Chief Medical advisor at Alloy Women’s Health; Jamie R. Abrams, Professor of Law and Director of Legal Rhetoric Program at Washington College of Law; Dr. Michele Bratcher Goodwin, Linda D. & Timothy J. O'Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Co-Faculty Director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law; Nicole Huberfeld, Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law at Boston University; Margaret E. Johnson, Professor of Law and Director of the Bronfein Family Law Clinic at University of Baltimore School of Law; Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law; Kimberly Mutcherson, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School in Camden and former BWLC Fellow-in-Residence; Dr. Versha Pleasant, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Breast Health & Cancer Genetics Clinic at University of Michigan; Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer at Slate; Karen Thompson, Legal Director at Pregnancy Justice; Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Executive Director of the BWLC; and Dr. Amanda P. Williams, Interim Chief Medical Officer at March of Dimes.
The BWLC gratefully acknowledges Dechert LLP for its generous sponsorship of our annual symposium.
This event has been approved to offer 3 New York State CLE credits in the category of Areas of Professional Practice. The credit is both transitional and non-transitional; it is appropriate for both experienced and newly appointed attorneys.
Schedule (all times ET)
10:00 - 10:30 a.m. Light Breakfast
10:30 - 10:45 a.m. Welcoming remarks
10:45 - 11:45 a.m. Panel 1: IVF and Fertility Care
- Dr. Michele Bratcher Goodwin, Linda D. & Timothy J. O'Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Co-Faculty Director, O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown Law
- Mark Joseph Stern, Senior Writer, Slate
- Karen Thompson, Legal Director, Pregnancy Justice
- Moderator: Kimberly Mutcherson, Professor of Law and former co-Dean, Rutgers Law School Camden; former Fellow-in-Residence, Birnbaum Women's Leadership Center
12:00 p.m. Lunch served
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Lunch Keynote
- Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center, NYU Law, in conversation with Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
1:45 - 2:45 p.m. Panel 2: Midlife Care
- Margaret E. Johnson, Professor of Law; Director of the Bronfein Family Law Clinic, University of Baltimore School of Law
- Dr. Sharon Malone, Fellow-in Residence, Birnbaum Women's Leadership Center, NYU Law; Chief Medical advisor, Alloy Women’s Health
- Dr. Versha Pleasant, Clinical Assistant Professor; Director, Breast Health & Cancer Genetics Clinic, University of Michigan
- Moderator: Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Executive Director, Birnbaum Women's Leadership Center, NYU Law
2:45 - 3:45 p.m. Panel 3: Maternal Health and Cancer Care
- Jamie R. Abrams, Professor of Law; Director of Legal Rhetoric Program, Washington College of Law
- Nicole Huberfeld, Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law, Boston University
- Dr. Amanda P. Williams, Interim Chief Medical Officer, March of Dimes
- Moderator: Jennifer Hendricks, Professor of Law; Co-Director, Juvenile and Family Law Program, Colorado Law
3:45 - 4:00 p.m. Closing remarks
4:00 - 5:00 p.m. Reception
- Panelist Bios
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Jamie R. Abrams is a Professor of Law at the American University Washington College of Law. Her most recent work, Mapping the Rhetorical Shifts in Abortion Advocacy, 89 MISSOURI L. REV. 399 (2024) (co-author Amanda Potts) was featured by Adam Liptak in the NYT. She also recently authored Reevaluating Regional Law Reform Strategies After Dobbs, 14 CONLAWNOW 131 (2023) and Liability in Reproduction and Birth, in LAWS OF MEDICINE – CORE LEGAL ASPECTS FOR THE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL (Springer Publishing 2022). Her scholarship deploys tort law and family law – fields heavily rooted in shifting community-based norms that reflect geopolitical variances – to shape reproductive rights advocacy and law reform. She works to expose blind spots in legal strategies, catalyze more effective law reforms, and mobilize new voices though amicus briefs, Op. Eds, traditional legal scholarship, and writing for health care practitioners.
Michele Bratcher Goodwin is the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Co-Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Dr. Goodwin is one to the most cited health law scholars in the world and a highly regarded public intellectual with commentaries appearing in the NY Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, the L.A. Times, Newsweek, Ms. magazine and other publications. She has testified before state and federal legislators on matters of health and reproductive justice. Dr. Goodwin is the author of six books and over 100 articles and commentaries on matters of law, medicine, reproductive health, and biotechnologies. She is the 2022 recipient of the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Award and in 2023 she was honored by the California Women’s Law Center with their prestigious Pursuit of Justice Award. Dr. Goodwin is author of the award-winning book, Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood.
Jennifer “Jenny” Hendricks is Professor of Law at the University of Colorado, where she teaches family law and civil procedure. Her research interests include sex equality and sex differences, constitutional family law, equality in sports, and relational feminist theory. Her book on the regulation of pregnancy and motherhood, Essentially a Mother, was published in 2022 by the University of California Press. Professor Hendricks studied mathematics and women’s studies at Swarthmore College and law at Harvard University. She then practiced plaintiffs’ trial and appellate litigation in Montana, where she specialized in constitutional, employment, and discrimination cases. In her practice, she successfully challenged illegal voter-redistricting and vote-counting, helped high school girls win equal sports opportunities, halted the construction of a coal-fired power plant that violated the right to a clean and healthful environment, won access to government documents for reporters and private citizens, and defended against defamation claims. She also represented victims of harassment and discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation.
Nicole Huberfeld is Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law at Boston University with a joint appointment at the School of Law and the School of Public Health. She is Chair of the Health Law Program and a founding Co-Director of the BU Program on Reproductive Justice. Her research focuses on the intersection of health law and constitutional law, often studying law as a structural determinant of health. She frequently publishes on federalism in health care, which includes topics within health reform, Medicaid, and the post-Dobbs reproductive health regulatory landscape. She is co-author of two leading health law casebooks and numerous national and international book chapters, law journal articles, peer-reviewed articles, and commentaries. Her work has been cited in judicial opinions by the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal and state courts as well as by federal and state agencies. In 2019, she won an Excellence in Teaching Award at BUSPH, and she has been nominated for teaching awards for four years in a row at BU Law. She also serves as Research Director for the Uniform Law Commission’s Joint Editorial Board on Health Law. Media quotes include the New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, Bloomberg News, Reuters, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Politico, Boston Globe, and Univision.
Margaret E. Johnson is a Professor of Law; Co-Director, the Center on Applied Feminism; and Director, Bronfein Family Law Clinic at The University of Baltimore School of Law. Professor Johnson engages in scholarship and advocacy in the areas of gender, reproductive, and menstrual justice. She has published articles in the UC Davis Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, and Harvard Journal of Gender & the Law, among others. She has a forthcoming article, Menstrual Justice Post-Dobbs, and a forthcoming co-authored Sage Encyclopedia entry regarding menstruation and abortion in the U.S. and Argentina. She is a menstrual cycle expert for Our Bodies Ourselves Today, a former Fulbright Scholar, and a former visiting professor at NYU Law and Georgetown Law. She is the recipient of the USM Board of Regents’ Faculty Award and Women’s Law Center of Maryland’s Dorothy B. Beatty Award. Professor Johnson is a graduate of Wisconsin Law School, cum laude, and Dartmouth College.
Dr. Sharon Malone is a DC-based OB/GYN and Certified Menopause Practitioner dedicated to empowering women to take charge of their health. As a nationally recognized expert in women's health, she is the Chief Medical Advisor at Alloy Women's Health and a New York Times Bestselling author. Dr. Malone is board-certified by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and certified by the North American Menopause Society. Her personal experiences, including her mother's untimely death from colon cancer, have driven her passion for addressing healthcare disparities and advocating for reproductive rights.
Alexis McGill Johnson is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), a national nonprofit organization that is the country's most trusted name in sexual and reproductive health and rights. Through a network of separately incorporated affiliates, Planned Parenthood health centers provide vital health care to more than 2 million people each year at nearly 600 health centers across the country, so that everyone — no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make — can get supportive, high-quality health care to live full, healthy lives. She is also the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a national reproductive health and rights advocacy organization.
Melissa Murray, Faculty Director of the BWLC, is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU. Professor Murray is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar and an Echols Scholar, and Yale Law School, where she was notes development editor of the Yale Law Journal and earned special recognition as an NAACP-LDF/Shearman & Sterling Scholar. Following law school, Professor Murray clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Stefan Underhill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Professor Murray teaches constitutional law, family law, criminal law, and reproductive rights and justice, and her research focuses on the legal regulation of sex and sexuality and encompasses such topics as marriage and its alternatives, the marriage equality debate, the legal recognition of caregiving, and reproductive rights and justice. Her publications have appeared (or are forthcoming) in the California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, and Yale Law Journal, among others. Professor Murray is also an author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary (with Andrew Weissmann), as well as Cases on Reproductive Rights and Justice (with Kristin Luker), the first casebook to cover the field of reproductive rights and justice. She has also written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and the Huffington Post, and has offered commentary for NPR, MSNBC, and PBS, among other media outlets. She is, with two other law professors, a co-founder and co-host of Strict Scrutiny, a Crooked Media podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. In 2010, Professor Murray was awarded the Association of American Law Schools’ Derrick A. Bell Award, which is given to a junior faculty member who has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice. Professor Murray was previously on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction. From March 2016 to June 2017, she served as interim dean of Berkeley Law.
Kimberly Mutcherson is a Professor of Law and former Co-Dean at Rutgers Law School in Camden. She was the first woman, the first Black person, and the first member of the LGBTQ community to be a Dean at Rutgers Law. Professor Mutcherson is a reproductive justice scholar whose work focuses on assisted reproduction and abortion among other topics. Cambridge University Press released her edited volume, Feminist Judgments: Reproductive Justice Rewritten in 2020. In 2023, Professor Mutcherson received the Trailblazer Award from the New Jersey Women Lawyer’s Association. Professor Mutcherson was a co-recipient of the 2021 M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers and the 2020 Association of American Law Schools inaugural Impact Award as one of the creators of the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project. Also in 2021, the Rutgers Law School Black Law Students Association honored her with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Champions of Social Justice Award and the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey celebrated her as a Distinguished Changemaker. Professor Mutcherson received the Center for Reproductive Rights Innovation in Scholarship Award in 2013, a Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2011, and the Women’s Law Caucus Faculty Appreciation Award in 2011 and 2014. Professor Mutcherson has been a Senior Fellow/Sabbatical Visitor at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her JD from Columbia Law School. Upon graduation from Columbia, she received the Kirkland and Ellis Fellowship for post-graduate public interest work. Prior to entering academia, Professor Mutcherson was a consulting attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights and a Staff Attorney at the HIV Law Project.
Dr. Versha Pleasant was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia receiving a Bachelor of Arts in French. She then completed a Master of Public Health at Yale University. She earned her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Pleasant completed residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan, and then completed a fellowship in Cancer Genetics and Breast Health at the University of Michigan. She currently serves as the Director of the Cancer Genetics and Breast Health Clinic at University of Michigan Hospital. She provides medical and surgical care for thousands of patients at increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer due to gene mutations (such as BRCA) or family history. She also provides specialized care to breast cancer survivors. Her research interests are focused on breast cancer-related racial health disparities facing Black women. She is currently a Michigan K12 Scholar, spearheading research to increase access to genetic counseling and testing among Black women. She is deeply committed to genomic justice and ensuring that all communities have equal access to and information about cancer genetics to improve their personal health.
Mark Joseph Stern is a senior writer covering courts and the law for Slate and a regular MSNBC contributor. Based in Washington, D.C., he has covered the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate and district courts, and state and local courts since 2013. Mark holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the Maryland Bar. He is the author of The Roberts Court Arrives, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Karen Thompson (she/her) joined Pregnancy Justice as legal director in 2024. Karen was previously a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the Innocence Project. After earning her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, M.A. from New York University, and B.A. from Carleton College, Karen started her legal career as an associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP. She has decades of experience fighting for civil rights and liberties and racial justice in courts nationwide. Karen spends her free time learning to play the cello, honing her jazz vocals, and helicopter parenting her two dachshunds, Miles Davis and Jolene.
Attorney and author Jennifer Weiss-Wolf joined the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center in 2022 as executive director. Prior she was vice president and the inaugural women and democracy fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. She also leads partnerships and strategy at Ms., the feminist movement-making magazine. A passionate writer on and advocate for issues of gender and politics, Jennifer was dubbed the “architect of the U.S. campaign to squash the tampon tax” by Newsweek. She has presented on issues related to her area of expertise — menstruation and the law — at the White House and before Congress, as well as in state legislatures and major city governmental bodies; she works closely with domestic and global leaders, advocates, and innovators in pursuing policy reforms. Her 2017 book Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity was lauded by Gloria Steinem as “the beginning of liberation for us all.” Her forthcoming book, Period. Full Stop. The Politics of Menopause will be published by NYU Press (2025). Jennifer’s scholarship and writing have been published by the NYU Review of Law and Social Change; Columbia Journal of Gender and Law; and William and Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice. Her writing and work have also been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue, NPR, PBS, and NowThis, among others. Jennifer received her JD from Cardozo Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Cardozo Women’s Law Journal, and her BA in government from Lafayette College.
Amanda P. Williams, MD, MPH, FACOG is the Interim Chief Medical Officer of March of Dimes where she leads March of Dimes' mission team to advance efforts in research, advocacy, education and programs that will prioritize the well-being of all moms and babies. Additionally, she is the Clinical Innovation Advisor at the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative based at Stanford University, where she is also on the adjunct faculty of the OBGYN department, guiding hospital-based birth equity projects using quality improvement methodology to support maternity units across California. Previously she was the Medical Director of a tech-enabled, venture-backed maternity wrap around services company called Mahmee. She was formerly the Assistant Chair of the Chiefs of OBGYN for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California and Maternity Director at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland Medical Center, in addition to personally caring for thousands of women as a practicing OBGYN.
- CLE Materials
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This event has been approved to offer 3 New York State CLE credits in the category of Areas of Professional Practice. The credit is both transitional and non-transitional; it is appropriate for both experienced and newly appointed attorneys.
Written Materials:
Panel 1:
- Macintosh, Kerry, Dobbs, Abortion Laws, and In Vitro Fertilization, Journal of Health Care Law & Policy, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2023 (March 22, 2024).
- Suter, Sonia M., Alito is Wrong: We Can Assess the Impact of Dobbs, and It Is Bad for Women’s Health, 53 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1477 (2023).
- Thompson, Karen, Barriers to Innocence, Rutgers University Law Review, Volume 75, Summer 2023, Issue 5.
Panel 2:
- Cahn, Naomi, Managing and Monitoring the Menopausal Body (with Bridget Crawford and Emily Gold Waldman), University of Chicago Legal Forum, Volume 2022, Article 3
- Johnson, Margaret E., Asking the Menstruation Question to Achieve Menstrual Justice, 41 J. Gender & L. 158 (2021).
- Weiss-Wolf, Jennifer, Menopause and the Menstrual Equity Agenda, 41 J. Gender & L. 158 (2021)
Panel 3:
- Abrams, Jamie. R., The Illusion of Autonomy in Women's Medical Decision-Making. Florida State University Law Review, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2015, University of Louisville School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2015-05
- Chapman-Davis, Eloise, Beyond the Decision: Reproductive Justice and Cervical Cancer Care in a Post-Dobbs Era. (with Miller, E.A., Chowdhardy, B.) Gynecologic Oncology, Volume 190, 2024, Pages 186-188, ISSN 0090-8258, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygyno.2024.08.013.
- Hendricks, Jennifer. Essentially a Mother: A Feminist Approach to the Law of Pregnancy and Motherhood, Chapter 8 (on abortion), (University of California Press, 2023).
- Huberfeld, Nicole, The Effects of Dobbs on Cancer Care (with Karen Basen-Engquist, Beth Y. Karlan and & Margaret Katana Ogongo), Health Affairs (March 29, 2024).
Note: In an effort to reduce paper consumption, a limited quantity of printed copies will be available on the day of the event. We highly encourage you to download your own digital copy via the links above.