E33: Reproductive Oppression: An Expanding “Appetite to Criminalize” with CUNY School of Law Prof. Cynthia Soohoo

This episode engages the theme of reproductive rights in the United States and beyond. Prof. Cynthia Soohoo—Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at the CUNY School of Law—illuminates the history of reproductive oppression in the United States. She examines the rights gains made with past US Supreme Court decisions—particularly Roe v Wade (1973) and subsequently Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992)—as well as the obstacles that have been erected over the past decades at the state level that have disproportionately impeded access to abortion for women of color, the poor, and those in rural areas. She discusses trends in regulation, criminalization, and heath care spending as well as foreign aid restrictions. Prof. Soohoo also examines the implications of the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned a 50-year-long right to abortion in the United States. She argues that the post-Roe era is distinct owing to an expansion of state-level criminal law. She explains the impact of diminished rights resulting from forced pregnancy and childbirth, including the right to privacy, right to autonomy, right to health, and right to be free of torture, cruel and inhuman treatment. Prof. Soohoo also notes how the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision counters the global trend of reproductive rights liberalization worldwide.