CLA Women's and Gender Studies Speaker Series: Birth, Medicalization, and the Politics of a Pandemic

CLA WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES SPEAKER SERIES

LAUREN HALL
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Rochester Institute of Technology

BIRTH, MEDICALIZATION, AND THE POLITICS OF A PANDEMIC

THURSDAY, MARCH 25
12:30—1:45 P.M. (EST)

Virtual via zoom

Zoom registration link:
https://rit.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEld-iurD0vHtyCmNskRPzaxDFeBHoJe5…

Maternity care in the U.S. was experiencing a crisis before COVID-19 hit, but increasing pressures on hospitals and providers during the pandemic have made the cracks in our maternity care system more apparent than ever. In this talk, I explore why the U.S. has some of the worst outcomes for mothers and babies in the developed world as well as cast light on the way in which interest groups use regulations as a way to jockey for control over women's bodies. The result is a hospital-centric maternity care system with poor outcomes, frequent rights violations, serious racial disparities in care, and ever-escalating costs. I end with options for reform, focusing on New York State as a case study.

Lauren Hall is associate professor of political science at Rochester Institute of Technology. She is the author of The Medicalization of Birth and Death (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), Family and the Politics of Moderation (Baylor University Press, 2014) and the co-editor of a volume on the political philosophy of French political thinker Chantal Delsol. Her current research deals with the politics of women and the family as well as issues relating to bioethics and healthcare regulation .