Beyond Borders: Global Legal Innovations for Countering “Parental Rights” and “Prenatal Personhood” in the U.S. Abortion Context
Overview
February 19, 2026 | 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. CT
Post-Dobbs, the United States has seen an onslaught of attacks on abortion care. Legal strategies grounded in “parental rights” and “prenatal personhood” are increasingly common and pose a particular threat to women, girls, and pregnant people’s lives, health, and well-being. Advocates and decision-makers in other countries have successfully relied on innovative arguments to push back against similar attacks, even within restrictive legal environments. This webinar examines the uptick in efforts to curtail young people’s autonomy in abortion decision-making and establish legal personhood for prenatal life in the United States, and compares those trends with the law and policy experiences of other countries.
Attend this webinar to learn about:
- Efforts to advance “parental rights” and establish “prenatal personhood” as a means of curtailing access to abortion care in the United States.
- Legal arguments relied upon by advocates and decision-makers in other countries to protect young people’s abortion decision-making and counter the establishment of legal personhood for prenatal life.
- How transnational experience- and knowledge-sharing can help to counter a unified, global anti-rights movement and advance access to abortion care.
Speakers:
- Jennifer Driver, M.P.H., Senior Director of Reproductive Rights, State Innovation Exchange
- Dana Repka, LL.M., Research Associate, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
- Wendy Heipt, J.D., Senior Reproductive Justice Counsel, Legal Voice
- Rebecca Reingold, J.D., Associate Director, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
Moderator:
- Kathi Hoke, J.D., Director, Eastern Region, Network for Public Health Law