By If/When/How
We’re still lawyers, law students, and movement organizers working to make reproductive justice a reality for all.
But now we’re twice as powerful.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce a merger years in the making, between two thriving organizations with so much in common: passionate people, revolutionary vision, uncompromising values. For fifteen years, If/When/How has been training, networking, and mobilizing law students and legal professionals to work within and beyond the legal system to champion reproductive justice. Since 2015, the SIA Legal Team has been transforming the legal and cultural landscape of self-managed abortion in the United States by revolutionizing laws and policies, modeling community lawyering, and supporting people at risk of being criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes.
As of today, March 13, we’re working together to lawyer for reproductive justice harder than ever before as the new If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice. As a united force and doubly powerful staff of lawyers, advocates, and movement organizers, we’ll employ five proven modalities to combat five forms of reproductive oppression ripe for compassionate attention and skillful intervention.
We’ll use all the tools in our collective quiver to advance reproductive justice: organizing, training, research, litigation, and policy advocacy. We’ll be strategically focusing on five issue areas: self-managed abortion care, judicial bypass, birth justice, repealing welfare family caps, and repealing the Hyde Amendment/Harris v. McRae. In all we do, we’ll continue to center communities uniquely impacted by criminalization, restrictions, discrimination, and structural oppression.
And, we’re not doing it alone. We’re activating and growing our ecosystem. Just as lawyers flocked to airports to support people affected by the Muslim ban and volunteered at detention centers to help reunite children separated from their parents, lawyers, legal professionals, and law students throughout the country want to show up to help people self-determine their reproductive lives.
“In light of recent developments, lawyers are eager to support those in crisis, to liberate themselves and their communities, and to reimagine a system that realizes rights for the masses and not just the fortunate few,” says Jill E. Adams, Executive Director. “We’re giving them a place to plug in and creating a clearinghouse to harness all of this potential and direct it toward the issues and people who need it most.”
“For 15 years, If/When/How has worked to change the face and practice of RJ lawyering through innovative programs like the Reproductive Justice Fellowship,” says Mariko Miki, Deputy Director. “And now, with added legal and policy expertise, we’ll draw on our roots in the movement and connections across communities to educate, train, organize, and mobilize a network of legal professionals who can bring their skills and privilege to bear on reproductive oppression in myriad ways.”
We invite you to meet the expanded If/When/How’s staff here, and please keep an eye on our blog for the analyses, commentary, and legal thought leadership they’ll be offering as part of this innovative and brave new team.
We are driven by the urgent need for this kind of radical collaboration in a political moment that is increasingly hostile to reproductive freedom. Together with our powerful nationwide networks of movement-minded lawyers, law students, advocates, and activists, we are expanding the fight for reproductive justice for all.
We’re sure you’ve got questions, so we’ll try to answer a few right here. Otherwise, reach out to us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you, and more importantly, to working with you to realize a future where all people have the power to determine if, when, and how to define, create, and sustain families with dignity and to actualize sexual and reproductive wellbeing on their own terms.