Abortion Law in U.S. History: Four Perspectives
Channel: NEIU Libraries
Date: 2022-10-19

On September 29, 2022 the NEIU Libraries hosted a panel discussion featuring four scholars — Helen Alvaré, Akhil Reed Amar, Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, and Leslie Reagan — with distinct perspectives on the societal, political, and legal history that has shaped the current landscape of abortion law in the United States. This event will be moderated by Crystalynn Ortiz, a master’s student of History at Northeastern Illinois University and the founder and president of the NEIU History Club.

In June of 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned two landmark decisions governing abortion rights: Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Court ruled that the right to an abortion is not constitutionally protected. As a result, individual U.S. states now have the power to decide whether abortions are banned, severely restricted, or completely legal in their jurisdictions. This decision greatly impacts individuals and healthcare providers around the U.S., who can now be criminally charged for having an abortion or for performing an abortion.

In light of these events, the speakers were asked to consider the following questions: What history–whether it be social, political, and/or legal history–is most significant to understanding the current status of abortion rights in the United States? In light of this history, what future do you predict for the legality of abortion rights, for the politics of abortion rights, and for American society as a whole?

A Q&A session with the audience followed the panelists' opening remarks and responses to each other.

This event was made possible thanks to funding awarded by the American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries. This is an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA) made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Speaker biographies:

Helen Alvaré is the associate dean of academic affairs and the Robert A. Levy Professor of Law & Liberty at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason. There she teaches courses in Family Law and in the Religion Clauses, and she also publishes books and law review articles in both of these areas of law. Her newest book, out in 2022, is "Religious Freedom after the Sexual Revolution." She is a member of Pope Francis's council on the laity and family and of his commission on clerical sex abuse. She is also an expert consultant for ABC news.

Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984, and clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, Amar joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26. He is Yale’s only living professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.

Alicia Gutierrez-Romine is an Associate Professor of U.S. History at La Sierra University (Riverside, Ca.), with an emphasis on California, the American West, the U.S.-Mexico border, and the history of medicine. Dr. Gutierrez-Romine's current research explores the life and activism of Dr. Edna Griffin, the first Black woman physician in Pasadena, and her role in the Civil Rights Movement in Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. Her manuscript, From Back Alley to the Border: Criminal Abortion in California, 1920-1969, published in 2020, traces the history of a medical procedure from the proverbial "back alley" to the U.S.-Mexico border. This innovative work describes in detail what happened in California when medicine became subject to atypical legislation.

Leslie Reegan is Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with affiliations in Law, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Media Studies. She is the author of When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973, the “go-to” book on the century when abortion was illegal. It was awarded the James Willard Hurst prize for the best book in socio-legal history. Dr. Reegan has also published the award-winning book Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America. Reagan appears frequently on NPR and has written for the Washington Post, Slate, and Ms. Magazine.