By If/When/How
To learn more about the emerging lawyers who are embarking on our two-year-long Reproductive Justice Fellowship program, If/When/How asked five questions to each one of our ’26-’28 RJ Fellows. Here’s what Josie Davis shared with us.
Tell us the basics: Your name, law school, and what placement organization you’ll be at for your Fellowship.
Josie Davis, Northeastern University School of Law, Brooklyn Defender Services.
Who are you beyond that? Whatever you want to share to highlight your biography or speak to the experience you’re bringing to the Fellowship.
My path to reproductive justice began in social work, where I worked with children and families and saw firsthand how systems can shape the choices available to families. I carried that perspective into my legal career, first representing parents and children in DCF cases, where I saw how the family policing system can profoundly affect families’ ability to remain together and make decisions about their lives. I later focused on reproductive rights policy in New England with Reproductive Equity Now and gained a different perspective on the legal system as a judicial intern in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Most recently, I contributed to litigation protecting reproductive freedom through the ACLU’s Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative.
I’m so honored to bring these experiences together as a Reproductive Justice Fellow with If/When/How and to continue exploring the connection between family defense and reproductive freedom!
What are you most excited about as you start your Fellowship? Why are you driven to focus on family defense?
I’m thrilled to be working alongside two amazing organizations, sitting at the intersection of policy, litigation, and reproductive justice. Much of my work to date has focused on abortion and contraceptive access, which are often the most visible, as well as the most commonly understood, aspects of reproductive rights. I’m excited to explore a broader understanding of reproductive autonomy and the ways it extends beyond these more traditional areas of reproductive rights. The ability to decide whether and how to build a family also means having the freedom to raise and care for that family without unnecessary state interference. I’m looking forward to learning from the If/When/How community and contributing to this work through a family-defense lens.
If you could snap your fingers and change or accomplish one thing around family defense to advance repro justice, what would that change be?
If I could snap my fingers and change one thing, it would be to ensure that the people most directly affected by restrictions on their reproductive autonomy are the ones shaping the solutions. Too often, those most impacted by the family policing system are treated as subjects of policy rather than experts in their own lives. Advancing reproductive justice means not only protecting people’s rights, but making sure they have a meaningful voice in defining what the movement should be.
What’s one new, inspiring, or fascinating thing you’ve been into lately? It can be a hobby, album, movie, internet trend, research rabbit hole, etc.
I’m sure I’m very late to the game, but I’ve recently gotten very into audiobooks! I’ve been borrowing them through the public library, and they’ve completely transformed my commute. It’s a really nice way to make a little more time for reading!