Session: Surveillance, Criminalization, and Reproductive Justice: Mechanisms of Harm and Possibilities for Resistance (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Schedule:

Thursday, January 21, 2027: 3:15 PM-4:45 PM

Golden Gate 7 (Hilton San Francisco Union Square)

Cluster: Gender

Symposium Organizer:

Celina Doria, MSW, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Reproductive justice, a human rights framework rooted in intersectionality, emphasizes the right to bodily autonomy, to have children, to not have children, and to raise children in safe and healthy environments. Systems of surveillance and control, from prisons and jails to healthcare systems, child welfare, and social services, often undermine these rights. Drawing on four studies, this symposium investigates the mechanisms through which surveillance, criminalization, and social service provision impact reproductive justice. Together, the studies illustrate the deleterious effects of institutional control, as well as the possibility of resistance through policy change, advocacy, education, and training.

The first paper analyzes California’s Assembly Bill 1810 as a menstrual equity reform in carceral settings, using a reproductive justice lens to explore both its material impacts and structural limitations. This paper argues that while the law may improve access to basic care, it does not undo the broader conditions of control that shape life in custody, highlighting the tensions between immediate policy reform and deeper structural transformation. The second paper demonstrates how such conditions of control limit reproductive autonomy while incarcerated by centering the embodied experiences of formerly incarcerated women through body mapping focus groups. This paper documents how incarceration generates lasting reproductive harms, from chronic pain and medical trauma to mistrust of healthcare systems, highlighting the injurious nature of incarceration on women’s reproductive lives.

The third and fourth papers shift attention to the role of the healthcare system in extending or resisting carceral logics within social service provision. The third paper uses data from a national survey of licensed social workers to describe social workers’ attitudes toward alcohol and/or drug (AOD) use in pregnancy and examines whether these attitudes are related to reporting to Child Protective Services (CPS) and the police. Findings suggest that there may be a relationship between attitudes toward AOD use in pregnancy and reporting to CPS and the police, highlighting the importance of social workers receiving training in best practices for providing non-stigmatizing services to people who use AOD in pregnancy. The final paper evaluates a statewide training initiative for physicians, nurses, and social workers addressing intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance use disorder (SUD) among pregnant and postpartum people. Although preparedness to respond to people and attitudes towards SUD improved, attitudes towards IPV were largely unchanged, suggesting that IPV-related stigma may be more culturally entrenched, requiring sustained, systems-level interventions and policy efforts to address bias and improve equitable, trauma-informed care for pregnant and postpartum people.

Collectively, this symposium offers important insights into the continuum of reproductive governance and possibilities for resistance. In a rapidly shifting reproductive rights landscape, this symposium provides valuable implications for advancing reproductive justice in social work research, policy, and practice.

* noted as presenting author

Menstrual Equity, Carceral Control, and the Limits of Reform
Frances Furio, PsyD, LCSW, California State University, Sacramento

Reproductive Healthcare Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women
Celina Doria, MSW, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sheila Shankar, MSW, University of Chicago; Gina Fedock, PhD, University of Chicago

Social Worker Attitudes Toward Alcohol and/or Drug Use In Pregnancy and Reporting to Government Authorities
Reiley Reed, MSW, MPH, University of California, Berkeley; Maya McGuire, University of California, Berkeley; Tina Sacks, PhD, University of California, Berkeley; Anu Manchikanti Gomez, PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Changing Attitudes Toward Pregnant and Postpartum People Experiencing IPV and Substance Use: A Pre–Post Evaluation Study
Catherine Poehling, DSW, MSW, MS, LCSW-BACS (LA), LCSW (MS), University of Southern Mississippi; Saijun Zhang, PhD, University of Mississippi; Chinedu Chukwu, University of Southern Mississippi; Xiaoshan Gordy, University of Mississippi Medical Center; Jerome Kolbo, PhD, University of Southern Mississippi; Lei Zhang, PhD, University of Mississippi Medical Center

See more of: Symposia

Session: Surveillance, Criminalization, and Reproductive Justice: Mechanisms of Harm and Possibilities for Resistance (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

35 Surveillance, Criminalization, and Reproductive Justice: Mechanisms of Harm and Possibilities for Resistance