Gender Studies hosts virtual panel with Planned Parenthood affiliates
Notre Dame’s Gender Studies Program and John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values hosted “Criminalizing Reproduction,” the fifth event in the series Reproductive Justice: Scholarship for Solidarity and Social Change, on September 29, 2023. The virtual panel was moderated by Professor Katharine McCabe and featured panelists Professor Wendy A. Bach, Professor Kimala Price, Professor Cynthia Soohoo, and Dr. Mishka Terplan.
The panel opened with an introduction of each of the speakers, followed by a brief statement from Professor Barbara Green, the Director of Gender Studies at Notre Dame. Green stated that, in accordance with university policy, an email that clarifies the university’s official position on discussed topics would be sent out to all attendees. As of publishing, participants have received no such email. Before the event, a representative also stated that a recording of the lecture would be available online, but Green later clarified via email that there had been a mistake and that no recording would be made available.
Katharine McCabe, the panel’s moderator, is an assistant professor of women’s and gender studies at Bucknell University and a former postdoctoral associate in Notre Dame’s John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values.
Kimala Price is a professor of women’s studies at San Diego State University and Co-Director of the Bread and Roses Center for Feminist Research and Activism. She currently sits on the board of directors for Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest and is an “active member of SisterSong Women of Color for Reproductive Justice Collective.” Mishka Terplan is an adjunct faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to assuming his current position, Terplan worked in the Medical Staff for Planned Parenthood in Baltimore, Maryland.
Cynthia Soohoo is a law professor and the Co-Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at the CUNY School of Law. According to her faculty profile, she “is an expert on reproductive justice, women’s human rights, and human rights advocacy in the United States.” Wendy A. Bach is a law professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The webinar began with a definition of “Reproductive Justice” in accordance with a definition offered by SisterSong, which has been used by the Gender Studies Program for the panel series. According to the series’ webpage, reproductive justice is “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.”
SisterSong is a “reproductive justice” advocacy group based in Atlanta, Georgia, that calls for “abortion care for any person who needs it” and “an end to police, prisons, family surveillance, and detention centers.”
Price began the panel’s discussion by arguing that although abortion and contraception are important, reproductive justice demands consideration of larger issues such as mass incarceration, LGBTQ justice, environmental justice, and more. Price also argued that criminalization of abortion “is about protecting white supremacy.” She continued, “It is about protecting a patriarchal control over folks, right? It’s about creating heteronormative family units, right? It’s about even protecting capitalism. … This is why we have all these different laws.”
Terplan spoke on the panel about the criminalization of substance use, and focused on the detrimental effects of criminalizing substance use in pregnant mothers. He proposed distinguishing between people who are “intentionally, willfully punishing people primarily out of discrimination and prejudice” and those who are “trying to protect babies from the risks of drugs, for example.”
Terplan told the Rover via email, “We have all internalized prohibitionist drug policy, and misapply a legal (and historical) classification of substances to issues of individual and population health. In other words, we assume that things which are illegal are more harmful in-and-of-themselves.”
He continued, “For example, from the perspective of teratogens, substances that can cause birth defects, that assumption is false. Also—from the perspective of the fetus, such distinctions are meaningless. The fetus is exposed to all sorts of chemicals—and does not know whether the substances are legal or illegal, medications, used as prescribed or misused, natural or synthetic compounds … yet the paradigm of criminalization applies these distinctions in the exercise of punishment.”
Soohoo began her discussion of criminalization by emphasizing the importance of abortion access, stating, “I want to emphasize that abortion is a form of healthcare, and that it’s inextricably intertwined with pregnancy care.” She continued, “Criminalizing abortion violates the rights of pregnant people, critical human rights to autonomy, to self-determination. … Denial of abortion in certain circumstances constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and can violate the pregnant person’s right to life.”
According to the Gender Studies website, the series “zooms out from the issue of abortion—and from intractable ‘pro-choice vs. pro-life’ debates—to the wider frame of Reproductive Justice.”
The Reproductive Justice: Scholarship for Solidarity and Social Change series has caused controversy in the past. “Trans Care + Abortion Care: Intersections and Questions,” the series’ second event, took place in March of 2023.
The “Trans Care + Abortion Care” event prompted Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend to write, “It is clear from the past and planned events in this series that the organizers are not conducting a neutral inquiry or exploring the debates within this field. The voices featured (including abortion providers and advocates) consider abortion itself to be an essential tool for pursuing justice, equality, and fighting discrimination.” He concluded that the decision to host the event constituted “a grave mistake in judgment that creates scandal.”
With the exception of Dr. Terplan, none of the panelists responded to the Rover’s requests for comment. The next event in the series, titled “Disability, Dependency, and Care: A Reproductive Justice Dialogue with Jina Kim and Akemi Nishida,” will take place at 4:30 p.m. on November 1.
Kephas Olsson is a sophomore from Lander, Wyoming in the Program of Liberal Studies. When not mourning the desolate flatness of South Bend he can be found roaming the halls of O’Shag procrastinating on chess.com and drinking ludicrous amounts of caffeine. In order to trade jazz fusion charts please contact him at kolsson@nd.edu
Photo Credit: Gender Studies website
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