Description:

The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program

Presents

A Montgomery Lecture

With

Ashish Premkumar, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Pritzker School of Medicine
University of Chicago

In the Wake of Dobbs: Affective Biopolitics at the
Intersection of Abortion and Maternal-Fetal Surgery

Over the past fifteen years, maternal-fetal surgery (MFS) has grown from a largely experimental approach to a routine option for managing certain complex fetal anomalies in the U.S. During the same period in the U.S., restrictions to accessing abortion have substantially increased, especially in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision in 2022. As MFS and abortion are options faced by pregnant people carrying a fetus with anomalies, it is paramount to evaluate the biomedical and public health consequences of simultaneous growth in MFS and reduction in access to abortion services from a multidisciplinary perspective. Social scientists focused on reproductive health commonly draw upon Michel Foucault’s framework of biopower, focused on the myriad ways policy impacts health outcomes at the individual and population level. To evaluate scenarios such as these, I draw from a particular approach informed by affect theory, or how certain policies and practices target modes of experience and being, to foster a research agenda focused on how the inequitable reproductive health environment of the U.S. affects the experiences of pregnancy and subsequent reproductive health decisions.

This lecture is open to the public and will be held in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior), Chicago Campus. For those outside the Chicago area and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, a Zoom option is also available.

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