Joanna S. Suder, J.D. serves as Senior Staff Attorney, Reproductive Health. Prior to joining the Network, Joanna was a Deputy Attorney General with the State of Delaware for almost ten years, representing the Delaware Division of Public Health and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services through the COVID-19 Pandemic. During her time as a Deputy Attorney General, Joanna also represented facilities as well as regulators, drafted legislation and regulations, practiced affirmative and defensive litigation, and negotiated contracts on behalf of her clients.

After she earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Joanna worked as a health care assistant in a family planning clinic. Joanna has a law degree from the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, where she was a health law concentrator. She co-oped at the Pennsylvania Health Law Project and spent at summer at the Nemours Office of Child Health Policy and Advocacy in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Delaware bar.

Articles & Resources

Reproductive Health Care, Litigation, Privacy and Public Health

WebinarsReproductive Health and Equity Maternal and Child Health

November 30, 2023
by Joanna S. Suder, Kathleen Hoke and Stephen Murphy

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eviscerated 50 years of precedent and constitutional rights to abortion. States have since adopted widely divergent reproductive health care access policies, illustrating serious legal questions remaining post-Roe. Attend this webinar for the latest information on litigation in state courts regarding reproductive health care access through state constitutions and statutes; an update on how states are protecting reproductive health records through data privacy laws; and how local health departments are serving their communities in the post-Roe landscape.

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­Attempts to Restrict Ballot Initiatives That Protect Abortion Access

Fact SheetReproductive Health and Equity 

October 5, 2023
by Joanna S. Suder

As a result of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, advocates on both sides of the abortion issue turned to state constitutions to determine the contours of a right to abortion or to make clear no such right exists under state law. When abortion was on the ballot in 2022, voters in several states rallied to enshrine the right to abortion in state constitutions and rejected attempts to further restrict abortions in their states. In the wake of these successful ballot measures, state legislators throughout the country have sought to amend ballot initiative processes ahead of the 2024 elections. This fact sheet outlines recent proposed amendments by several states that are intended to thwart pro-abortion ballot initiatives.

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Medication Abortion: A Primer

Fact SheetReproductive Health and Equity Maternal and Child HealthLegislation and Legal ChallengesHealth and Health Care

April 5, 2023
by Joanna S. Suder

The majority of abortions in the U.S. are medical abortions, a safe and effective method for early pregnancy, initiated by patients using a medication regimen. Medical abortions, also called chemical abortions or abortion pills, are one of the new battlegrounds on which political and legal wars are being fought. This fact sheet provides information on the drug regimen for medication abortion and current legal challenges to their use.

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