Profs and Pints Online presents: “Texas, Roe, and the Future of Abortion,” with Sara Matthiesen, assistant professor of history and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at George Washington University and author of the forthcoming book Reproduction Reconceived: Family Making and the Limits of Choice after Roe v. Wade.

[This talk will remain available in recorded form at the link given here for tickets and access.]

Texas lawmakers have sent shockwaves throughout the nation by passing a measure that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and financially rewards private citizens who bring lawsuits against those who “aid and abet” it. Moreover, a U.S. Supreme Court majority’ has decided not to block enforcement of the law before hearing any sort of formal challenge to it, worrying many reproductive rights advocates who have been waiting on the court to weigh in this fall on a separate challenge to legal abortion, the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

But what does the Texas law, and the Supreme Court’s decision to leave it in place, actually mean for abortion access in that state and in the rest of the country? What did abortion access in the country look like prior to Texas’s Senate Bill 8? Should we be preparing for the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade, and what could that preparation look like?

Come hear such questions tackled by Sara Matthiesen, a historian of reproductive politics in the United States who will offer insights based on the history of reproductive rights, feminist legal scholarship on Roe, and the expertise of advocates on the ground.

She’ll discuss what the landmark Roe decision said about the right to abortion and how courts’ interpretations of it have been or might be altered by subsequent legal rulings. She’ll also discuss what the future of abortion in the United States might look like, especially given the growing prominence of the use of medications to end pregnancy.

Many reproductive rights activists have been telling us for years that access to abortion is a more valuable metric of how their battle is going than whether Roe remains standing. Why, then, do we continue to treat the Roe decision as a barometer for the status of reproductive choice?  Dr. Matthiesen will discuss how imagining a post-Roe world actually might be a necessary step towards achieving meaningful reproductive freedom.

Dr. Matthiesen will donate her proceeds from the talk to the Repro Legal Defense Fund, a project of If/When/How dedicated to supporting people who are investigated, arrested, or prosecuted for self-managed abortions.

Profs & Pints Online: Texas, Roe, and the Future of Abortion