Call for Submissions: 2012 Sarah Weddington Prize for New Student Scholarship in Reproductive Rights
Law Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ) and the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) Law School Initiative invite submissions for the seventh annual Sarah Weddington Writing Prize.
The theme this year is “Legislating Stereotypes: Reproductive Rights Rollback in the States.”
LSRJ & CRR seek student scholarship that focuses on the ways that recent state legislation relies on negative stereotypes about gender, race, poverty, and sexuality to strip away reproductive rights. Examples of false stereotypes used to justify reproductive oppression include: women of color as irresponsible (“welfare queens”); undocumented immigrants as hyper-fertile (“anchor babies”); gays and lesbians as unfit role models for children; women as weak, vulnerable, incompetent decision makers, and in need of special protection; adolescent and teenage sexuality as reckless; and abortion providers as economically motivated to exploit women.
Examples of legislated (or legislation-supported) reproductive oppression include: the annual renewal of the Hyde Amendment; exclusion of new and undocumented immigrants from health insurance exchanges and Medicaid; attempts to defund Planned Parenthood; the proliferation of and state funding for Crisis Pregnancy Centers; mandatory waiting periods, physician statements, and ultrasounds for abortion; TRAP laws regulating clinics and limiting patients’ access; race- and sex-selection bans; curtailing health insurance coverage for reproductive health services; attempts to take away birthright citizenship; drug-testing of welfare recipients; prosecution of pregnant women and mothers battling substance abuse; resistance to making the HPV vaccine more accessible to minors; and laws allowing the denial of reproductive services on the basis of conscience.
We encourage writing that amplifies lesser heard voices, applies an intersectional approach to legal thinking, offers anti-essentialist analysis, and/or suggests innovative solutions that take into account the practical realities and the lived experiences of the people affected by various forms of subordination and reproductive oppression.
Papers should have a domestic focus, but may draw on international materials such as human rights treaties, international legal norms, and comparative law, in addition to U.S. statutory law and regulation and/or constitutional case law. Authors are asked to apply a reproductive justice lens and/or human rights framework to their analyses of the issues. To learn more:
-- What is Reproductive Justice?: http://lsrj.org/orientation/
--Reproductive Rights as Human Rights:
http://reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/RRareHR_final.pdf
-- Previous winning submissions: www.lsrj.org/awards/#writingprize
Papers must be at least 20 pages in length (not including footnotes), double-spaced in 12-point font with footnotes in 10-point font, conforming to Bluebook citation format. Only original scholarship by current law students or 2011 graduates will be accepted. Papers submitted for publication elsewhere will be considered, but will be ineligible for first place if published elsewhere. Papers already contracted for publication as of March 2012 will not be accepted. Winners will be selected by an outside panel of legal and academic judges. Send your submission (in Word format as an email attachment) to submissions@lsrj.org by 5:00pm PST on Monday, March 5, 2012.
The 1st place winning submission will be published in New York University School of Law’s Review of Law and Social Change. Winning authors will receive cash prizes: $750 (1st place), $500 (2nd place), or $250 (3rd place) and have the opportunity to be published in the Reproductive Justice Law & Policy SSRN e-journal.
