The California Women’s Law Center is holding a number of panel discussions this year with the UC Irvine Center for Biotechnology & Global Health Policy and Ms. Magazine addressing women’s health disparities. Moderated by Michele Goodwin, this series focuses on many of the factors contributing to our nation’s health care inequities and the impacts they have on Americans.

In 1968, five years before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, Dr. King expressed, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  The 7-2 decision in Roe suggested that the arc of the fight for women’s equality and reproductive freedom were within reach.  With Roe came greater access to contraception, sex education, and a dramatic decline in maternal mortality. 

Now, 100 days post Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, many are skeptical and fearful about the status of women’s health, rights, and justice on a range of issues including menstrual equity, is it safe to use apps when communicating about our health, and maternal mortality. This convening addresses health disparities and the long arc of reproductive justice post Dobbs. Panelists will examine the criminalization of abortion and the spread of crisis pregnancy centers, the fight for menstrual and menopause equity, glaring harms associated with maternal mortality, and what this landscape means for LGBTQ equality.  This event presents a more comprehensive picture of the chilling health harms and civil rights at risk in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

View a recording of the event here.