Michele Goodwin, UCI Law Chancellor’s Professor of Law, Meets with Vice President Harris to Discuss Reproductive Rights
The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization cast aside nearly 50 years of precedent by overruling a long line of decisions upholding women’s reproductive rights, including Roe v. Wade. Women no longer have the fundamental, constitutional right to choose whether or not to have an abortion without government restrictions. As the nation grapples with a post-Roe future, the White House has been preparing for this expected ruling for several months.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently gathered experts on constitutional law, privacy, technology and reproductive rights to discuss potential repercussions if Roe v. Wade was overturned. Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law, was one of the experts who participated in the roundtable meeting to offer insights based on more than twenty years of research on these matters.
The meeting held at the Ceremonial Offices of the Vice President lasted almost two hours, reflecting the seriousness of the issues at stake, as well as what this decision means for our democracy.
“This was a historic and pivotal meeting at the White House,” stated Goodwin. “Never before has there been a woman Vice President of the United States and for the first time, a Vice President called a meeting to underscore the constitutional protections of reproductive health, rights and justice.”
As Attorney General for the State of California, Harris was well versed in thinking about reproductive health care, promoting and protecting reproductive privacy, according to Professor Goodwin. “The Vice President is genuinely concerned with the status of reproductive health rights and justice in the United States and potentially what this decision could mean coming from the United States Supreme Court.”
The meeting served as an information gathering session where the Vice President wanted to understand the issues that could become most vulnerable following an overruling of Roe v. Wade. The primary concerns discussed included the rule of law, democracy, privacy, liberty, assisted reproductive technologies, criminal punishment and LGBTQ rights.
Goodwin commented: “The states that have been most aggressive in dismantling abortion rights are also the states that have been very active in voter suppression, making it difficult for women to use the democratic process and exercise their constitutional right to vote. The Vice President understands the urgency of these times and the dramatic risks to health and liberty which are at stake.”
The roundtable served as an initial discussion identifying critical areas of concern. Goodwin has continued the conversation with senior white house officials and other leaders across the country on how to protect reproductive rights now that the Court has issued its decision on Dobbs.
Participants:
- Professor Peggy Cooper Davis of NYU School of Law
- Professor Melissa Murray of NYU School of Law
- Professor Glenn Cohen of Harvard Law School
- Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin of UC Irvine School of Law
- Jennifer Weiss-Wolf of Brennan Center for Justice and Ms. Magazine
- Professor Leah Litman of University of Michigan Law School
- Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President Rohini Kosoglu
- White House Counsel Dana Remus
- Executive Director and Co-Chair of the Gender Policy Council Jennifer Klein