Upcoming events include:
April 15th: Gender Justice Lawyering in 2025: Responding to the New What-Can-I-Do Questions
Please join Professor Kaur to discuss the modern realities of lawyering against gendered violence with a panel of lawyers on the frontlines.
Please RSVP here by Thursday, April 10th!
April 29th: Abolishing the Family Policing System: A Reproductive Justice Imperative - Virtual Teach-In
In Nov 2024, Center on Reproductive Rights & Justice at UC Berkeley Law, If/When/How, & Movement for Family Power convened the Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice: Building Solidarity to End Family Policing symposium to interrogate the family policing system as a reproductive injustice.
Now, we are continuing the work with a virtual teach-in series in collaboration with our movement partner, Elephant Circle to deepen our understanding of the interconnected struggles within reproductive justice movements and family policing abolition in practice. We will focus on issues like pregnancy criminalization, the drug war, the deportation machine, trans liberation, and welfare rights.
Join us for the 1st virtual offering Abolishing the Family Policing System: A Reproductive Justice Imperative. While Reproductive Justice has always demanded a world where all people have a right to have children and parent those children in safe communities, the mainstream reproductive rights movement has historically failed to prioritize resisting family policing. To challenge these systems and win, we must advance the full vision of reproductive justice that demands an end to family policing.
Past events include:
March 6th: The Pregnancy Police: Conceiving Crime, Arresting Personhood with Dr. Grace Howard
February 18th: The Role of Prosecutors in Protecting Reproductive Rights
District Attorneys Sherry Boston and Laura Conover will discuss how prosecutors play a vital role in safeguarding reproductive healthcare access through their discretionary powers and policy decisions. The DAs will highlight their unique position to shape prosecutorial priorities, protect the rights of medical providers and patients, and ensure their offices remain focused on public safety and building community trust.
November 15th: Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice Symposium
You are invited to Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice: Building Solidarity to End Family Policing, a symposium hosted by the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice (CRRJ) at UC Berkeley Law, If/When/How: Lawyers for Reproductive Justice, and Movement for Family Power, and the Gender Journal.
WHEN: 9am – 5pm / Friday, November 15th (with a book sale and signing by Dorothy Roberts to follow from 5-6pm)
FOOD: Breakfast will be available starting at 8am. Lunch will be available from 11:45 – 1pm.
Please join us, Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice: Building Solidarity to End Family Policing, a full day of panel discussions and critical conversations interrogating the family policing system–or the so-called “child welfare” system–as a site of reproductive punishment and control, particularly for Black, Latine, and Indigenous families, and other marginalized communities. We are thrilled to share that our keynote speaker will be Dorothy Roberts, thought leader, author, and professor–and our closing speaker will be Amanda Wallace, movement leader and founder of Operation Stop CPS.
The post-Roe landscape has amplified the connection between attacks on reproductive autonomy and family integrity. More so than ever, people are being forced to remain pregnant and subsequently punished by the family police for raising children without the necessary support or resources. Through practices like test-and-report and mandated reporting, the family policing system also deters birthing people from seeking the reproductive health care they need.
We are calling on advocates to unite in advancing a shared vision for reproductive justice that includes an end to family policing.
November 14th: Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice Pre-Symposium Reception and Film Screening
October 31st: A Collaborative Approach to Address Family Policing
Please join students, faculty and staff from the School of Law, the School of Social Welfare and the Joint Medical Program for a collaborative workshop focusing on how we can work across disciplines to address inequities in family policing. The unique discussion based seminar will be held on 10/31 from 9-12pm at the JMP Suite in the Golden Bear Center (1995 University Ave).
Feb 20: Fighting for Reproductive Justice While Incarcerated
On February 20, Faride Perez-Aucar delivered a talk based on a forthcoming report titled, “Fighting for Reproductive Justice While Incarcerated,” where she laid the foundation for exploring the intersections of criminal justice and reproductive justice through an abolitionist lens. She shared that while many legislative reforms have been made in recent years to better support the provision of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care for people in California prisons and jails, much work remains to effectively ensure the rights conferred by the policy changes are realized by the individuals they were intended to benefit and protect. As examples, she cited ongoing shackling of incarcerated pregnant people in hospitals despite a longstanding law barring the dangerous practice and the uneven implementation of lactaction policies intended to support breast and chest feeding incarcerated parents. Though a previous version of the report mostly focused on access to pregnancy-related and reproductive health care services for people in custody, the new edition will feature and expand discussion on other tenets of reproductive justice centering the right to family on family unity by highlighting opportunities for systems change and advocacy in reentry services and in the family policing system.
Nov. 7: Innovative Adaptations - Professional and Institutional Responses to State Abortion Restrictions
Please join the Zoom link here to join this panel discussion!