2012 Symposium Webcast
Making Connections:
Violence Against Women and Reproductive Justice
October 27, 2012
The denial of women's autonomy is the essence of violence against women.
–Irene Weiser, Stop Family Violence
This symposium brought together Smith College alumnae working in law and public policy to explore the connections between violence against women and reproductive justice in the United States today.
In 2011, state legislatures passed more restrictions on access to abortion than in any previous year and this trend continues. In 2012, Arizona banned abortion after 18 weeks; Virginia legislators proposed to require women seeking abortions to submit to physically invasive ultrasounds; Title X family planning funding is under attack; North Carolina legislators refused to compensate women whom the state had subjected to forced sterilization; and many states still shackle incarcerated women during childbirth.
Meanwhile, reports of rampant violence against women abound—sexual violence in the military and on college campuses, intimate partner violence, sex trafficking, and the systemic violence of poverty and the prison industrial complex. Native American, immigrant and LGBT people experience some of the highest rates of sexual assault, yet Congress has delayed extending the protections of the Violence Against Women Act to cover these groups.
On the 35th anniversary of the death of Rosie Jimenez—the first woman to die as a result of the Hyde Amendment restricting public funding for abortion—this symposium brought together Smith alumnae working on violence against women and reproductive justice with longtime feminist activist Kim Gandy to discuss connections between interpersonal and systemic violence against women and increasing restrictions on women's reproductive lives.
Watch the Symposium
Welcome
 | Marilyn Schuster, Provost, Smith College Watch the video |
Introduction
 | Kim Gandy, Executive Director, National Network to End Domestic Violence Watch the video |
Morning Panel: Reproductive Justice and Bodily Autonomy
 | Candace Gibson '07 Government/Spanish
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health Watch the video |
 | Sophie Godley '93 Women's Studies
Clinical Assistant Professor of Public Health at Boston University School of Public Health Watch the video |
 | Jessica Lewis '94 Women's Studies/Biology
Deputy Director, Connecticut Women's Health Project, Yale School of Public Health Watch the video |
 | Questions and discussion Watch the video |
Afternoon Panel: Violence Against Women and Bodily Autonomy
 | Kate Connelly '95, Government, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Watch the video |
 | Alisa Klein '91 Women's Studies, Alisa Klein Consulting Watch the video |
 | Lisa Young Larance '91 Women's Studies/History, Domestic Violence Intervention Services Coordinator, Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor, Michigan Watch the video |
 | Questions and discussion Watch the video |
 | Questions and discussion (continued) Watch the video |
Closing Remarks
 | Kim Gandy, Executive Director, National Network to End Domestic Violence Watch the video |
Support for the Symposium
This symposium was organized by Carrie Baker and sponsored by the Program for the Study of Women and Gender, the Government Department, the Project on Women and Social Change, and the Five College Public Policy Initiative.
