Profs and Pints Online presents: “Before and After Roe v. Wade,” with Sara Matthiesen, professor of history and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at George Washington University.

In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court will issue a decision on June Medical Services v. Gee, a case that will decide whether or not individuals still have the right to abortion as established under the court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.  Already, the Senate has conducted a hearing on legislation that would ban abortion after twenty weeks nationwide. And even before the election of Donald Trump and the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, abortion rights advocates had been sounding the alarm about the ever-growing number of restrictions to the procedure being implemented at the state level.

How did Roe shape access to abortion care as well as Americans’ ideas about abortion? For example, why didn't legality lead to widespread access, what does the long-standing abortion debate have to do with this? What does the possibility that Roe will be overturned mean for abortion care in the United States?  What is actually entailed in one’s right to abortion, and why does that right so often fail to guarantee access?

Professor Matthiesen, a historian of reproductive politics in the United States and author of the forthcoming book Reproduction Reconceived, will tackle these questions by drawing on insights from the history of reproduction, feminist legal scholarship on Roe, and expert knowledge from advocates on the ground. She will also discuss what the future of abortion care in the United States might look like, especially given the growing prominence of medical abortions that end a pregnancy with medication. (This talk remains available in recorded form. )

Profs & Pints Online: Before and After Roe v. Wade