Khiara M. Bridges is a professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law. She has written many articles concerning race, class, reproductive rights, and the intersection of the three. Her scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the California Law Review, the NYU Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others. She is also the author of three books: Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization (2011), The Poverty of Privacy Rights (2017), and Critical Race Theory: A Primer (2019). She is a coeditor of a reproductive justice book series that is published under the imprint of the University of California Press.
She graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College, receiving her degree in three years. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her Ph.D., with distinction, from Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology. While in law school, she was a teaching assistant for the former dean, David Leebron (Torts), as well as for the late E. Allan Farnsworth (Contracts). She was a member of the Columbia Law Review and a Kent Scholar. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic Arabic, and she is a classically trained ballet dancer.
Education
B.A., summa cum laude, Spelman College
J.D., Columbia Law School
Ph.D., with distinction, Columbia University
Khiara M Bridges is not teaching any Law courses in Spring 2025.
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title | Fall 2024 | 212.3 sec. 001 | Critical Race Theory | 230 sec. 004 | Criminal Law | Spring 2024 | 230 sec. 001 | Criminal Law |
|---|
The Supreme Court Is Keeping Trump’s Promises
“It’s so disingenuous to say that we’re just going to allow political majorities in the state to determine the legality of abortion when not everybody in the state is going to be able to vote because of what Republicans are doing and because of what the Court is allowing them to do,” Professor Khiara M. Bridges says. “Our democracy is undeserving of that label.”
The Religious Right Mobilized to End Roe. Now What?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges talks about the racial dynamics of the fight over abortion, and how they shaped the events that led to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.
‘We Will Fight Like Hell’: California Reacts to Supreme Court’s Decision
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade presents an imperative for California to “be on the offensive” but putting additional money and effort into ensuring its residents, and those coming from the outside to receive care, can access contraceptives and abortion services. “When you have a law that makes abortion unavailable, you have a law that makes unavailable a service upon which Black people disproportionately rely, so there’s a specific racial impact,” she says, noting that Black people have not only higher rates of unintended pregnancy but also higher rates of maternal mortality and morbidity.
Professor Khiara M. Bridges: Court Abortion Ruling Is an Assault on Women — and Democracy
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing many states to end or sharply curtail abortion rights will have profoundly harmful effects on those who are forced to continue unwanted pregnancies and on democracy itself, says Berkeley Law scholar.
Garland Signals Brewing Battle With GOP-Led States Over Access to Abortion Pills
“There’s an open legal question about whether states could limit the use of mifepristone in light of the FDA’s judgment that the medicine is safe and effective. It’s not at all clear,” Professor Khiara M. Bridges says. “States can regulate the practice of medicine within their borders.”
Birth Control Restrictions Could Follow Abortion Bans, Experts Say
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the Supreme Court’s recent decisions have sent a message to conservative state lawmakers that it won’t stand in the way of laws restricting birth control methods. “It’s all of the implications of the Dobbs decision that make us reasonable to be fearful about the accessibility of contraception in the future,” she says.
Q&A: If Abortion Is Illegal, What Happens Next?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges and NPR reporter Sarah McCammon answer listener questions about what a post Roe v. Wade world might look like.
Abortion, Climate, Guns, and Religion: Supreme Court Poised for a Sharp Right Turn
Four Berkeley Law professors, including Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, discuss the court’s anticipated conservative decisions on some of America’s most divisive issues.
Overturning Roe v. Wade could restrict more than abortion, according to experts
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade could have implications for other reproductive rights such as contraception and IVF
After Leaked Roe Ruling, GOP Weighs Stricter Abortion Bans
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says in its initial filing, the plaintiffs in Dobbs were testing how far the Supreme Court would go to disregard the viability line
The Post-Roe Battleground for Abortion Pills Will Be Your Mailbox
Professor Khiara M. Bridges explains the obstacles to mail-ordered abortion medications and says she expects a conflict between a state’s ability to regulate the practice of medicine and the federal government’s ability to regulate the availability of any medication in the US.
What Would Overturning Roe Mean for Birth Control?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges warns, if the Supreme Court is willing to do away with longstanding precedent like Roe, Bridges said, it’s impossible to predict what other rights also could be in question
Biden can’t do much about abortion rights, but here’s what he could try
Professor Khiara M. Bridges explores the idea of the federal government leasing out federal lands and allow abortion clinics to operate on them
Roe established abortion rights. 20 years later, Casey paved the way for restrictions
Professor Khiara M. Bridges helps unpack the complicated question of what constitutes a burden
‘Everyone who is vulnerable in some way’ will bear the brunt if court overturns Roe, specialists say
Professor Khiara M. Bridges, one of the authors of an amicus brief in the Dobbs case, says the burden of restricted abortion access will fall heaviest on Black women and expects, if abortion is criminalized and states begin prosecuting people who terminate pregnancies, poor people of color will be arrested and convicted at higher rates than their white counterparts
Far-Reaching Implications of Roe v. Wade’s Demise w/ Khiara Bridges, Michelle Oberman
Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on the Majority Report to discuss the bombshell leaked US Supreme Court brief from Justice Alito that would overturn Roe V. Wade
Where Roe went wrong: A sweeping new abortion right built on a shaky legal foundation
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the anti-abortion movement has organized around Roe v Wade, but very few people have read it
A ‘shattering blow’: East Bay leaders react to Supreme Court Roe v. Wade draft
Oaklandside notes that Professor Khiara M. Bridges sounded the alarm in March over the impending loss of abortion protections, and how they would impact vulnerable people
Supreme Court teed up for major decisions over next two months
Professor Khiara M. Bridges says a decision against abortion rights would come down hardest on people who do not have the ability or means to travel where an abortion would be available and the only source of optimism may be in the likelihood that the Supreme Court’s decision will sort of spur activism
No, this California bill wouldn’t allow mothers to kill their children after they’re born
Professor Khiara Bridges debunks Facebook posts claiming California lawmakers proposed a bill that would allow mothers to kill their babies up to 7 days after birth