News

ACS Chapter Receives Reproductive Rights and Justice Award

May 09, 2016

The Northwestern Pritzker School of Law chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) has been chosen by the national ACS organization and the Center for Reproductive Rights to receive the 2016 Reproductive Rights and Justice Award for demonstrating outstanding commitment to reproductive health and rights through its 2015-16 programming.

Events dedicated to reproductive rights and justice over the past academic year included:

  • a parliamentary-style debate over the constitutional right to elective abortions featuring Professor Andrew Koppelman and University of Quinnipiac Professor Stephen Gilles;
  • a roundtable discussion featuring Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer on legal reforms to address sexual assault on university campuses;
  • an interview with national ACS President Caroline Fredrickson, featuring Associate Dean Janice Nadler, on how lapses in labor protections make motherhood and childrearing particularly difficulty for low-wage, working women;
  • an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and scholar David Garrow on the current state of the right to privacy, 50 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut; and
  • a dinner gathering to listen to and discuss the recent oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Whole Women’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, the case challenging a recent Texas law regulating abortion clinics.

Several events were held in collaboration with Law Students for Reproductive Justice, the Northwestern University Human Rights Project, and the Women’s Leadership Coalition. Professor Tuerkheimer and Professor Erin Delaney serve as the group’s co-faculty advisors.

“When we began our efforts to revive our twenty-person ACS chapter at the end of last year, we did not imagine we would grow our membership to over 140 students, earn the SBA's Outstanding Student Organization Award, and receive national recognition from the Center for Reproductive Rights in a single year. We are truly honored to have received this award, and I am personally grateful for and humbled by the strong commitment of my board members, faculty advisors, and classmates,” said chapter president Ngozi Nezianya (JD-MBA ’17).

The award will be presented at the ACS Annual Convention in Washington DC in June, where Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards will deliver featured remarks.