May 15
Doe v. Minnesota: Advancing Abortion Rights Through the Law
In Minnesota, our state constitution has protected a broad right to abortion since Doe v. Gomez in 1995. But for decades before and after this, state legislators passed restriction after restriction on abortion, all clearly unconstitutional under the Gomez standard, without anyone enforcing the law. Christy Hall from Gender Justice will provide an inside perspective on how abortion funds, activists, faith communities, abortion providers, and public interest lawyers came together to finally change that with the Doe v. Minnesota lawsuit. She’ll discuss how the mistakes of the past led to a status quo that was untenable, where people had a technical right to an abortion without everyone being able to access the health care they needed. She’ll also discuss what work must happen next to shore up our rights in Minnesota.
Christy Hall is Senior Staff Attorney at Gender Justice, where she represents clients challenging gender discrimination. She practices in both state and federal court and has argued before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Minnesota Court of Appeals. She is proud of her ground-breaking work on transgender rights in the Affordable Care Act and the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Christy has been named a Power 30 employment lawyer by Minnesota Lawyer Magazine in 2021 and 2022—the only non-profit lawyer to do so. Christy graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School.