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The Pregnancy Criminalization Playbook: Maternal Health Care on Trial

McCourt School of Public Policy, Washington, DC - Up to 6 Credits (where approved)

Agenda Faculty Hotel Register Online

Summary:

Across the country, pregnancy and maternal health care are being policed, prosecuted, and politicized. This urgent one-day summit brings together leading voices to discuss how criminalization operates on a national level and what it will take to decriminalize care.

LOCATION: Georgetown University, McCourt School of Public Policy
DATE: December 5, 2025
TIME: 8:00 am - 5:30 pm ET
COST: FREE (registration is required)
CLE Credit: Up to 6.0 credits 

Agenda

The program agenda and faculty are subject to change.

Friday, December 5, 2025
8:00-9:00 am Breakfast & Registration
9:00-9:30 am

Welcome & Keynote Address

  • Professor Michele Goodwin - Linda D. & Timothy J. O'Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy; Co-Faculty Director, O'Neill Institute
9:30-10:30 am

The Supreme Court’s Quiet Revolution: State Power, Medical Standards, and the Future of Reproductive Rights

  • Molly Meegan, JD, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
10:30-10:45 am Break
10:45 am – 11:45 am

Legacy on the Line: Midwifery from Historic Persecution to Current Prosecutions

  • Dr. Monica McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN, Visiting Professor at NYU Meyers
11:45 am- 12:45 pm Lunch Break (Lunch Provided)
12:45-1:45 pm

They Can Jail Someone for That?

  • Cary Aspinwall, Investigative Reporter, The Marshall Project
1:45-2:45 pm

Criminalization Care: New Findings on Reproductive Health Prosecutions and Arrests

  • Dr. Grace Howard, San Jose State University
2:45-3:00 pm Break
3:00-4:00 pm

Unjust Applications of Evidentiary Rules in Pregnancy Prosecutions

  • Professor Asees Bhasin, Esq., Visiting Assistant Professor, Donald Gaines Murray Fellow University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
4:00-5:00 pm

Bans Without Borders: Immigrant Communities Under Attack

  • Professor Valeria Gomez, Assistant Professor, Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic University of Baltimore School of Law
5:00-5:30 pm

Closing

 

Faculty

  • Professor Michele Goodwin, Co-faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
  • Cary Aspinwall, Investigative Reporter, The Marshall Project
  • Molly Meegan, JD, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
  • Dr. Monica McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN, Visiting Professor at NYU Meyers
  • Dr. Grace Howard, San Jose State University
  • Professor Asees Bhasin, Esq., Visiting Assistant Professor, Donald Gaines Murray Fellow University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
  • Professor Valeria Gomez, Assistant Professor, Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic University of Baltimore School of Law

 

Hotel

SEMINAR VENUE:
Georgetown University
McCourt School of Public Policy 
125 E St. NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20001

HOTEL ACCOMODATIONS:
Fairfield by Marriott - Washington DC/Downtown
500 H St, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Online Reservations: Book your group rate for NACDL- Georgetown Room Block
Group Rate: $198 plus tax - expires Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Rooms/discounted group rates are not guaranteed once the block has been filled.  

Code of Conduct

NACDL endeavors to foster a working, learning, and social environment free of harassment, discrimination, intimidation, and insult. To that end, NACDL has adopted a Code of Conduct for Affiliated Persons that applies to all attendees and participants of any kind at all NACDL sponsored events.

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