Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Resource Project

The inaugural event of the Sissy Farenthold Fund for Peace and Social Justice consisted of two webinar roundtables with lawyers, policymakers, activists, and civic leaders to discuss strategies for ensuring reproductive justice for Texans after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The webinars attracted over 200 people, including a number from outside of the state, given that many see Texas as ground zero for battles over abortion access. The Fund has also established scholarships for two UT law students to spend the 2022-23 academic year working on programing and advocacy on national and international issues of reproductive justice.

Through these webinars as well as multiple discussions across the country with elected officials, abortion fund representatives, and attorneys and legal scholars, a clear need has emerged: ensuring quality legal resources for those who face criminal charges or civil suits for facilitating access to abortion, including providers, friends, family members, and community organizations and funds supporting pregnant persons. While not currently targeted under the abortion law, pregnant persons are not immune from prosecution; as in the past, those suspected of having self-managed abortions might face charges under assault, child abuse, or homicide statutes.

Although all potentially pregnant persons and those who would assist them will experience the chilling effect of anti-abortion laws, those with few resources will continue to bear the brunt of both lack of access to safe, legal abortion and overcriminalization. Based on threats by prosecutors, legislators, and private individuals represented by organized anti-abortion activists, we anticipate aggressive and unprincipled prosecutions and civil lawsuits in mostly rural counties in Texas without public defenders, including Eastland, Fannin, Franklin, Hockley, Hood, Jack, Panola, Rusk, Smith, Taylor, and Tarrant. Indigent criminal defendants are thus likely to receive court-appointed counsel who lack the experience or resources to work through the complex legal issues involved in these cases.

To meet this acute need, we have begun the Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Resource Project. We are already working with both national and Texas-based reproductive rights organizations, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and ten national law firms, many with Texas offices, to ensure that we can both serve Texans in this area and create a project that can be a model for other abortion restrictive states.

In early 2023, we plan to hire a full-time experienced lawyer (director) and program coordinator to organize and lead a largely volunteer structure, including an expert panel of lawyers and legal scholars to advise on the complex array of legal issues involved (criminal, constitutional, health, immigration, family, privacy, and data security). The director and coordinator will engage in outreach to and provide resources and training for local attorneys offering direct representation, pro bono attorneys who assist them, and advocacy organizations. Pro bono attorneys will be drawn from large national law firms around the country. The director will also work with law and graduate students to conduct legal research and track litigation.

The Project’s home in the Rapoport Center will allow for in-kind resources (office space, library access, etc.) and will be key to the collaboration between national legal experts, local advocacy organizations, and attorneys across the state. It will also make possible the cross-campus collaboration needed for the tracking research.

The following lawyers and legal scholars are on the advisory board: Aimee Arrambide (Avow), Aziza Ahmed (Professor, Boston University School of Law), Maddy Dwertman (Sr. Associate, Baker Botts, Austin), Jennifer Ecklund (Partner, Thompson Coburn, Dallas), Karen Engle (Professor and Co-director, Rapoport Center, UT School of Law), Barbara Hines (Professor, UT School of Law), Jennifer Laurin (Professor, UT School of Law), Rachel Rebouché (Dean and Professor, Temple University Beasley School of Law), Jane Tigar (defense attorney with extensive practice), and Michael Tigar (former UT law professor and Emeritus Professor of Law, Duke Law School).

The Jacob & Therese Hershey Foundation and the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity have together already generously contributed $350,000 to the project. We are also in the final stages of grants with two other foundations.