Fall 2013
CRRJ ACCOUNT
IDEAS * ACTIONS * OPPORTUNITIES
Free Film Screening and Panel December 12th
Join CRRJ and fellow co-sponsors on December 12

th at Ninth Street Independent Film Center in San Francisco for a free screening of Young Lakota, a documentary that chronicles a political battle over reproductive rights and tribal sovereignty on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The film will be followed by a panel discussion on Native women and the struggle for reproductive justice featuring Cecilia Fire Thunder (Oglala Sioux, Former Tribal President), Charon Asetoyer (Comanche, Native American Women's Health Resource Center), Rochelle Diver (Anishinaabe, International Indian Treaty Council), and Katrina Maczen-Cantrell (Shoshone, Women's Health Specialists), and moderated by Vanessa Daniel (Groundswell).

 

Register HERE.  View the trailer HERE. 
CRRJ Wins Access to Justice Award
CRRJ and Visiting Researcher Dr. Elena Gutiérrez won Access to Justice Awards for high-impact research with "Bringing Families out of 'Cap'tivity:  the Need to Repeal the CalWorks Maximum Family Grant Rule."  The awards were presented by ACCESS Women's Health Justice at its 20
th anniversary celebration in Oakland on September 29th.  Other 2013 Access to Justice awardees were:  
Renee Bracey Sherman for practical support and overnight housing; Alissa Perrucci and the Women's Options Center for excellence in counseling for abortion care; and Mardi Kildebeck and the Mary Wohlford Foundation as a model funder for reproductive health, rights, and justice.
Fall Symposium a Resounding Success 
   
On October 4th CRRJ, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice hosted a groundbreaking multidisciplinary symposium at Boalt focused on the impacts of legal restrictions on abortion and the implications of the undue burden standard as applied to them.  Presentations were well received by the audience of over 150 faculty, researchers, practitioners, and students.  One lawyer in the audience wrote, "It was helpful to think about my work having direct overlap with physicians and public health researchers.  I came away with new ideas for our research and collaboration."  A medical student reflected, "While I may or may not end up providing abortion care, this issue is very important to me.  This will enable me to speak clearly, accurately, and passionately about this topic."  And a blogger stated, "Both statistics and discussions of how laws are being established/applied will be helpful in furthering education more generally and in formulating future actions." 

 

Video of the presentations and readings are available on the CRRJ website.  The Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice will publish several pieces from presenters and attendees of the symposium in its Winter 2015 Volume. The deadline for submission is December 31, 2013.
Legal Fellow Leads Key Projects  
Yvonne Lindgren, J.D., J.S.D. joined CRRJ for the 2013-14 academic year as its first Legal Fellow.  Dr. Lindgren manages the casebook project and co-facilitates the Reproductive Justice Working Group. 
Her research and scholarship focuses on reproductive rights and justice, constitutional law, and domestic violence.  Executive Director Jill E. Adams hailed Lindgren as an enormous asset to the CRRJ team saying, "She brings a wealth of substantive knowledge, research skills, teaching experience, and passion for the issues that have made her immediately indispensable to our efforts." 

 

She is currently working on an article entitled From Rights to Dignity: Applying the Lessons from Physician-Assisted Death to the Movement for Reproductive Justice that compares the abortion rights movement with the death with dignity movement to consider the limiting effect of constitutional rights status on the ability of rights to be transformed through social movements from a narrow rights framing to broader questions of reproductive justice and dignity.
Spring Semester RJ Working Group

Are you interested in joining the conversation about reproductive justice? The Reproductive Justice Working Group (RJWG) is a facilitated gathering of activists, clergy, researchers, students, faculty, and community members who meet twice a month. The group's primary goal is a to co-create an environment where participants can deepen their understanding of reproductive justice and develop practical ideas for integrating it into their research and practice.  

  

This semester, the RJWG will meet the following Wednesdays from 3:30 - 5:30 PM:  January 29; February 12, 26; March 12, 19; April 2, 16, 23.  Meetings will be held in a wheelchair-accessible location in Berkeley with free parking for people with disability placards. Space is limited. Express your interest in participating by January 27th by emailing reprojustice@law.berkeley.edu. In response, you will receive details about registration, preparations for the first meeting, and directions. For more information about the RJWG, click HERE. 
Guide to Starting your Own Working Group


In response to requests from colleagues outside the Bay Area, we've captured stories, lessons, and tips from the Reproductive Justice Working Group's inaugural year in a 
guide to help others start their own working groups.  Download a free copy HERE. 
Seeking a Law Student for Cutting-Edge Casebook 

CRRJ is accepting applications for a law student researcher for spring semester 2014. The position will be primarily responsible for editing and formatting the manuscript of a first-edition casebook on reproductive rights and justice. Ideal candidates will be 3Ls or 2Ls able to spend at least eight) hours per week providing editing, Bluebook-ing, and formatting assistance to the Legal Fellow and authors for the casebook manuscript. Credit and work-study options are available. For more information, visit CRRJ's website.
Literature Review on Reproductive Justice

 CRRJ's Faculty Director and Postdoctoral Fellow teamed up to write the first invited  review of reproductive justice for the Annual Review of Law and the Social Sciences.  Zakiya Luna's and Kristin Luker's riveting review article can be downloaded for free HERE.
Thank You Fall Semester Students

We are grateful for the efforts and feats of a tremendous team of students working at CRRJ during the fall 2013 semester.  Thank you Mariela Cisneros, Tiffany Do, Elvina Fan, Jessica Gutierrez, Cheryl Iwamoto, Abbey Marr, Kathleen Messinger, Darlene Olmedo, Melissa Trent, and Menisha Virdi!  
Please Support our Work
CRRJ has brilliant ideas and big plans for the year ahead, but we can't make them a reality without you. We rely on contributions from individuals who share our vision and value our work. Please consider making a tax-exempt donation today.
2850 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 500, Berkeley, CA 94705 · reprojustice@law.berkeley.edu