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Gender, Sexuality, and the Law

The Incrementalist Ascendancy

In this unit, we will follow the road that led to the reversal of Roe. We will examine the strategies developed by the organizations that created a powerful and effective anti-abortion establishment--from the effort to control the Supreme Court to the fight to close clinics to the war to deregulate campaign spending. We will consider how the effects of this effort were felt the most intensely by people of color, who had abortions at a disproportionately high rate and were heavily impacted by abortion restrictions and bans. We will consider how anti-abortion groups invoked arguments about race and eugenics--and explore how a reproductive jurisprudence could better address questions of racial justice.