Soros Justice Fellowships

Ibis Reproductive Health

Rachel Roth will complete her book Unlocking Reproductive Rights, which critically examines the ways that imprisonment undermines women’s health, bodily integrity, and status as mothers. Every year, increasing numbers of women, particularly poor women and women of color, spend part of their lives behind prison walls. Once inside, these women must navigate a largely unregulated, often arbitrary and capricious system that controls everything from access to medical care to contact with families. They also confront a daunting set of policies that can make it impossible to regain custody of their children once they reenter the “free world.” The stories in this book will shed new light on the social costs of imprisonment while broadening our understanding of reproductive rights.

Roth is a feminist scholar committed to bridging the worlds of research and advocacy, and whose current work aims to raise awareness of the impact of imprisonment on women’s reproductive and parental rights. Roth is the author of the critically acclaimed book Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights, coauthor of the policy report Abortion Funding: A Matter of Justice, and a contributor to Defending Justice: An Activist Resource Kit. Currently a Research Fellow at Ibis Reproductive Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she has taught at Smith College and Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her BA in Women’s Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her PhD in Political Science from Yale.

Cambridge, MA  |  One Year |