Jessica Arons is the Director of the Women's Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, as well as a member of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative. Prior to joining American Progress, she worked at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, the labor and employment law firm of James & Hoffman, the Supreme Court of Virginia, the White House, and the 1996 Pennsylvania Democratic Coordinated Campaign. She currently serves on the boards of the DC Abortion Fund and the Virginia ACLU.
Jessica is an honors graduate of Brown University and William and Mary School of Law. At William and Mary, Jessica was an associate editor of the William and Mary Law Review, managing editor of the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law, and a board member of the William and Mary Public Service Fund. She has been seen on MSNBC, Fox News, and ABC News; heard on Clear Channel radio; and featured in The Nation, Politico, HuffingtonPost ScienceProgress, and RHRealityCheck. Her publications include "More Than a Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health and Rights" and "Future Choices: Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the Law."
Jessica Arons is the Director of the Women's Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress and the author of More than a Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health & Rights.
In the pro-choice community, we spend most of our time debating the options women should have when they are thinking about terminating a pregnancy. We rarely spend time, however, discussing what options women should have when giving birth. By the same token, maternal and birthing rights activists often do not address issues surrounding abortion in their own work.
The National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) has set out to change that. This past weekend in Atlanta, GA, pro-choice activists and maternal rights supporters came together—for the first time to my knowledge—for a National Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women.
