Roe v. Wade Anniversary Event

In celebration of the Roe v. Wade anniversary, please join us via teleconference for a conversation about our work to preserve and expand reproductive rights in New York and nationwide.

Featuring:

Irin Carmon, MSNBC, Moderator

Andrew Grossman, Grossman Heinz

Donna Lieberman, New York Civil Liberties Union

Jasmine Burnett, New Voices Women of Color for Reproductive Justice 

Jennifer Dalven, American Civil Liberties Union

Katha Pollitt, The Nation

Katharine Bodde, New York Civil Liberties Union

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Irin Carmon is a national reporter for MSNBC covering gender, politics, and law. She is a visiting fellow at the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School. Previously she was a staff writer at Salon and Jezebel. Her reporting on reproductive rights has been recognized with the Maggie Award from Planned Parenthood, the Sidney award by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, the Irwin Schneiderman Pioneer Award by NARAL-NY, and a Champion for Choice Award from the New York Abortion Access Fund. 

Andrew Grossman is a Principal at Grossman Heinz. Beginning in late 2012, Grossman Heinz has worked with Access Health CT to develop and implement creative campaign-style approaches to outreach, education, and enrollment, helping to significantly reduce the number of uninsured residents in Connecticut.  In 2012, Andy directed the 2012 Democratic National Convention Platform Committee. As Director of the Common Purpose Project Health Care Working Group in 2009-2010, he was as a key advisor to the White House and Senate Democrats and played a central role in passage of the Affordable Care Act. He founded and served as President of Wal-Mart Watch, a new model of non-profit advocacy, to challenge the world’s largest business to be a better corporate citizen. Wal-Mart responded to this challenge by launching its landmark environmental initiative and endorsing the Affordable Care Act.

Donna Lieberman is the Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Under her leadership the NYCLU has expanded the scope and depth of its work, supplementing and strengthening the pursuit of litigation with an aggressive legislative advocacy and a field organizing program that works on behalf of civil liberties and civil rights. As a result, the organization is widely recognized as the state's leading voice for freedom, justice and equality, advocating for those whose rights and liberties have been denied, especially for those most marginalized by society.

Jasmine Burnett is a consultant, writer and activist in the reproductive justice movement. She is currently organizing as a consultant with New Voices Women of Color for Reproductive Justice establishing chapters in Cleveland, OH and Philadelphia, PA. As a national thought leader, strategist and organizer, Jasmine coordinates rapid response grassroots social media campaigns targeted at interrupting narratives that are constructed about Black women and girls on issues of liberty, self determination and bodily autonomy. Under her leadership and consult, she’s led successful campaigns and strategic work for SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, Trust Black Women, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Audre Lorde Project and Streetwise and Safe to name a few.  

Jennifer Dalven is the Director of the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In this role, Jennifer oversees and directs the ACLU’s litigation, state advocacy, and communications work on issues affecting access to reproductive health services. That work runs the gamut from legal challenges to laws that would ban abortions and shut down women’s health centers to initiatives to stop state legislatures from passing further restrictions on access to reproductive health care to communications strategies to move public opinion and galvanize supporters. Prior to becoming Director, Jennifer was a staff lawyer for more than 10 years. In that capacity, she successfully litigated numerous reproductive rights cases around the country, including state laws denying Medicaid coverage for abortion, laws permitting health care providers to refuse to provide reproductive health services, and bans on abortion procedures.  Most notably, she argued Planned Parenthood v. Ayotte, a challenge to New Hampshire’s parental notice for abortion law, before the United States Supreme Court.

Katha Pollitt is a poet, essayist and critic. Her writing focuses on political and social issues, including abortion rights, racism, welfare reform, feminism and poverty. Pollitt is a contributing writer to The Nation and has won the National Magazine Award, a Whiting Foundation Writing Award, and the Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for her writing. She is also a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. She is the author of four essay collections and two books of poetry. For her poetry, Pollitt has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her 1982 book Antarctic Traveller won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Katharine Bodde is Policy Counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, specializing in reproductive rights and LGBTQ issues. Prior to working at the NYCLU, she worked as a legal educator in Cambodia for communities in provincial areas focusing on the legal and extralegal remedies for violations of women’s rights and citizens’ land rights. This work combined both her background as a New York City teacher and her commitment to fighting violence and poverty by empowering women. She has also worked at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and, as a volunteer immigration attorney, has assisted in securing asylum status for recent refugees.