NYU Law clinic teaches law students to challenge abortion restrictions
NYU School of Law is hosting a clinic that teaches 'advocacy and litigation around legal or policy frameworks restricting the autonomy ... of pregnant, parenting, and birthing women.'
One of the clinic's partnering organizations defended a client prosecuted under the 'Cocaine Mom' law in Wisconsin, which is 'designed to protect a developing fetus.'
New York University School of Law is hosting a Reproductive Justice Clinic that teaches students how to mount legal challenges to abortion restrictions.
Students can enroll in the clinic during the fall semester, and an advanced version is available every spring. The clinic, according to NYU’s website, addresses “advocacy and litigation around legal or policy frameworks restricting the autonomy and undermining the equality of pregnant, parenting, and birthing women.”
The course description defines reproductive justice as “more than the right to abortion and contraception.”
Reproductive justice, the description continues, “embraces a broader concept, opposing the use of reproduction–and, in particular, of pregnancy and parenting status–as a tool of oppression.”
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NYU Law professors Sarah Burns and Sarah Wheeler and School of Professional Studies professor Margaret Johnson teach the clinic and advanced clinic. Burns and Wheeler also host a reading group, “US Abortion Doctrine: What Now?,” which reviews “cases and articles to understand how the constitution can still be seen to support” abortion, same-sex marriage, and other “fundamental rights.”
The Reproductive Justice Clinic, according to NYU’s website, partners with the pro-choice organizations Pregnancy Justice; programs of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), including the Reproductive Freedom Project and Women’s Rights Project; and the New York ACLU affiliate.
Partnering organizations provide fieldwork for students enrolled in the clinics. The website notes that previous students “[r]esearch[ed] and draft[ed] memoranda and briefs supporting abortion regulation challenges” and secured a legal victory for a client prosecuted under the “Cocaine Mom” law in Wisconsin.
The law, according to Wisconsin Pubic Radio (WPR), is “designed to protect a developing fetus from a mother’s alcohol or drug use” by “detain[ing] adult pregnant women suspected of abusing drugs.”
Pregnancy Justice, one of NYU’s partner organizations, defended the client.
The organization recently changed its name from the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, noting that it is “dedicated to defending the rights of pregnant people” while facing “the challenges that lie ahead without Roe.”
Campus Reform contacted all relevant parties listed for comment and will update this article accordingly.
