If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, formerly Law Students for Reproductive Justice, supports law students and legal professionals aiming to increase dialogue, awareness, and activism to protect and expand reproductive rights as basic civil and human rights.

If/When/How is a national non-profit network of law students, professors, and legal professionals committed to fostering the next wave of legal experts for the reproductive justice movement. Mobilizing and mentoring new lawyers and scholars is a long-term strategy that will build capacity, vision, and leadership for a more successful reproductive justice movement. Law functions as both a catalyst to prompt the expansion of rights and a tool with which to hold governments and communities accountable for the delivery of liberty, equality, dignity, and fairness promised by those rights.

Reproductive justice will exist when all people can exercise the rights and access the resources they need to thrive and to decide if, when, and how to create and sustain a family with dignity, free from discrimination, coercion, or violence. We dedicate ourselves to ensuring access to medically accurate, age-appropriate, culturally competent sex and sexuality education, as well as comprehensive, quality reproductive healthcare, including prenatal care, postnatal care, contraception, abortion services, and alternative reproductive technologies for all people, free from coercion, discrimination, and violence.

Reproductive justice recognizes the ways race, class, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender expression, immigration status, and ability impact access, agency, and autonomy in shaping one’s reproductive destiny. By applying an intersectional analysis, Reproductive justice advocates recognize how each individual is uniquely affected by barriers to information, resources, health care, and social supports at different stages throughout their reproductive lives.

Today, a growing number of law schools offer comprehensive courses in reproductive rights, law, and justice, but opportunities for professional training remain scarce. As individuals, each of us faces difficulties obtaining the education and training we need to become strong, successful advocates for reproductive justice. Together, we can change this situation and become a powerful, educated force that defends and expands reproductive rights in the United States and around the world.