Privacy in a Post-Dobbs World: Sex, Contraception, Abortion and Surveillance

2 credits · Law School

This seminar will examine the extent to which the intersection of abortion laws and 21st-century surveillance compromises or eliminates the physical, decisional, and informational privacy of women and people who can become pregnant. We will review the history of contraception and abortion cases and carefully read Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022). We will look at a variety of current state laws that criminalize, ban or create civil liability schemes in an effort to eliminate abortion, discussing the surveillance that is likely to characterize this post-Roe world and implications for privacy more generally. Finally, we will consider how and whether Dobbs might affect other substantive due process rights. Recommended prerequisite: Not open to students who took or are currently taking Law 611.