WGSS Symposium 2023

Title: History and the Long Arc of Reproductive Freedom
Michele Bratcher Goodwin

About Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin

Michele Bratcher Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy.  She is currently the Abraham Pinanski Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.  She is the 2022 recipient of the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Award as well as the 2022 Trailblazer Award from the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.  In 2020-21, she received the Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California. She is also the first law professor at the University of California, Irvine to receive this award. In 2021-22, she was named the Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is an elected member of the American Law Institute as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center (the organization central to the founding of bioethics).

She is the author of Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood.  She is also host of the popular podcast On The Issues at Ms. Magazine.

Professor Goodwin’s health and constitutional law scholarship appears in the Harvard Law Review, California Law Review, Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Michigan Law Review, New York University Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal, among others.  This dossier addresses legal questions related to bodily autonomy, reproductive freedom and rights, freedom of speech; religious exercise; equal protection; due process; race and sex discrimination; slavery; and LGBTQ equality. Her scholarship has been referenced by national media, legislators, and civil society organizations. 

Professor Goodwin is a sought-after public commentator and has been featured in print, radio, and television news, including Politico, Salon.com, Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Vox, Mother Jones; ABC News; NBC News; NPR, HBO’s Vice News, MSNBC, and Ms. Magazine among others. She is host of the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast at Ms. Magazine. A prolific author, Goodwin’s publications include six books and over 100 articles, essays, book chapters, and commentaries.

Professor Goodwin has authored or co-authored amicus briefs submitted to the United States Supreme Court as well as the Second, Third, Sixth, and Ninth U.S. Courts of Appeals.  She has provided testimony to state and federal lawmakers and legislative committees and worked with state attorneys general or their staff on health-related matters in California, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York.   

Professor Goodwin has won national awards for excellence in scholarship, outstanding teaching, and committed community service. Gov. Paul Patton of Kentucky commissioned her a Colonel, the state’s highest title of honor for her outstanding contributions to K-12 education. In addition to being recognized with the Margaret Brent Award in 2022, she received the Women of Courage Award from the National Organization of Women (NOW) and the Victim Rights Law Center’s 2022 Leadership Award.  In 2020, Orange Coast Magazine named her one of 35 Kickass Women.  In 2019 she received the Be The Change Award.  In 2018 she was bestowed the Sandra Day O’Connor Legacy Award by the Women’s Journey Foundation. That same year, Professor Goodwin was named Teacher of the Year by the Thurgood Marshall Bar Association and received a commendation from the United States House of Representatives for Outstanding Teaching.   

Voting is now open for the People's Choice Award!