Although sexual and reproductive health is critically important for women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), there is limited research elucidating the role of family caregivers in assisting women with IDD access sexual and reproductive health services and information. Understanding the family caregivers' attitudes and perspectives is essential to improving access to sexual and reproductive health services and information for women with IDD. A cross-sectional online survey of family caregivers of women with IDD was administered between June and October 2018. Quantitative analysis was conducted for closed-ended responses, and qualitative analysis was conducted for open-ended responses. The analytic sample included 132 family caregivers. Most participants were parents and reported being closely involved in their family member's access to sexual and reproductive health services and information. Although most participants expressed that sexual and reproductive health services and information are essential for women with IDD, qualitative analysis of participants' open-ended responses revealed both supportive and restrictive attitudes and perspectives on sexual and reproductive health services and information for women with IDD. Supportive attitudes and perspectives included (1) "knowledge is power;" (2) supported decision-making; and (3) protection against sexual abuse. Restrictive attitudes and perspectives included (1) dependent on the individual; (2) lack of autonomy; and (3) placing responsibility on disability. Greater attention from policymakers and practitioners to systems-level changes, including universal and accessible sexual education for women with IDD, supported decision-making, and sexual abuse prevention measures, are urgently needed.

Parents with disabilities and their families experience pervasive inequities within the child welfare system. However, existing conceptual frameworks do not adequately explain or address the unique needs and experiences of parents with disabilities and their families involved with the child welfare system. Accordingly, we present a conceptual framework that incorporates empirical findings from existing literature while integrating and expanding extant frameworks and models. The conceptual framework, which is aimed at being a starting point from which to investigate child welfare system inequities experienced by disabled parents, includes interrelated factors measured at the contextual, institutional, and individual levels. The paper discusses areas for further research, challenges for researchers, and implications for reducing child welfare system inequities.

Although the fundamental right to raise a family is among our most cherished, it is not equally afforded to everyone. Indeed, the United States has an appalling and enduring history of policing parenthood among people with disabilities. In recent years, the rights of parents with disabilities and their children have garnered unprecedented attention from activists, scholars, legal professionals, and policymakers. Nevertheless, the number of disabled parents who have their parental rights terminated is substantial and growing. As such, the roots of these ongoing injustices must be investigated. To that end, because the family policing system, including termination of parental rights, is primarily governed by state statutes, such an interrogation must begin there.

In response, this Article presents findings from a systematic examination of the inclusion of parental disability in state termination of parental rights laws. Strikingly, using established methodological practices from the social sciences, it reveals that parents in forty-two states and the District of Columbia are at risk of having their parental rights terminated because they are disabled. Even worse, as this Article demonstrates, these numbers have remained essentially unchanged for over a decade. Thus, ableism remains entrenched in state termination of parental rights laws. Finally, drawing on the findings from this investigation, this Article considers normative legal and policy solutions for challenging ableist termination of parental rights statutes as well as areas warranting further inquiry. Reckoning with these statutes is essential to finally confront the irreparable harm inflicted on disabled parents and their children by the family policing system.

The battle to protect abortion rights in the United States has not been this fierce in fifty years. From the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision to a precipitously growing number of states passing draconian laws that drastically limit—and in some states, entirely ban—access to safe and legal abortion services, reproductive freedom is under siege at every turn. The current assault on reproductive freedom has had devastating consequences for all people, but most acutely for historically marginalized communities, including people with disabilities. Critically, this attack most adversely affects people who live at the intersection of disability and other marginalized identities or statuses. Nonetheless, when disability is invoked in discourse concerning abortion, it is typically done to either support or oppose abortions based on fetal disability diagnoses. By framing disability and abortion only in the context of disability- selective abortions, activists, scholars, legal professionals, and policymakers fail to recognize that it is actual disabled people—not hypothetical fetuses with disability diagnoses—who are harmed by abortion restrictions. Indeed, disabled people disproportionately experience pervasive and persistent disadvantages that increase their need for abortion services. They also experience considerable structural, legal, and institutional barriers that already put access to safe and legal abortion out of reach for many.

In response, the Article proposes a blueprint to help activists, scholars, legal professionals, and policymakers as they imagine the next steps in the battle to protect abortion rights in a way that fully includes people with disabilities. First, the Article situates the current battle to protect abortion rights within the social and institutional contexts that propagate reproductive oppression of people with disabilities by examining how reproduction has been weaponized over time to subjugate disabled people as well as presenting contemporary examples of such injustices. Thereafter, it explores disabled people’s unique needs for abortion services and the myriad ways they are disproportionately and adversely affected by restrictions on abortion rights. Next, the Article presents disability reproductive justice, a jurisprudential and legislative framework, and its application to the fight for abortion rights. Finally, drawing from disability reproductive justice, the Article suggests normative and transformative legal and policy solutions for challenging the current assault on abortion rights and its impact on disabled people.

The United States is experiencing the convergence of two crises threatening the reproductive freedom of people with disabilities and other historically marginalized groups: the COVID-19 pandemic and a rising assault on reproductive rights, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. This convergence has created a perfect storm, revealing the depth of existing reproductive injustices endured by disabled people and forcing a reckoning with the consequences of permitting such inequities to persist. As such, urgent attention by activists, scholars, legal professionals, and policymakers is necessary.

In response, this Article offers a vision for addressing the deeply entrenched reproductive injustices experienced by people with disabilities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. To do so, first, the Article explores the reproductive oppression experienced by disabled people before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating that the current inequities are a continuation of long-lasting problems. Specifically, it examines reproductive health and healthcare inequities, barriers to information, contraception, and abortion, risks to self-determination and autonomy, and parenting challenges and threats. Thereafter, it presents disability reproductive justice and explains the significance of this jurisprudential and legislative framework for achieving reproductive freedom for people with disabilities during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, drawing from the disability reproductive justice framework, this Article concludes by suggesting legal and policy solutions to address disabled people’s immediate reproductive needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a path forward for dismantling the roots of the longstanding reproductive inequities they experience. It also considers issues requiring further attention and inquiry.

This article is a response to Zagouras, Ellick, and Aulisio who presented a case study justifying the questioning of the capacity and autonomy of a young woman with a physical disability who was pregnant and facing coercive pressure to terminate.

Parents with psychiatric disabilities confront extensive discrimination, often resulting in child welfare system involvement. Stigma and discrimination pervade the experiences of parents with psychiatric disabilities within the child welfare system, resulting in poor outcomes. This study explores these experiences, including barriers and facilitators to the provision of supports and meaningful legal services, for parents with psychiatric disabilities who have child welfare system involvement. Through interviews with 13 employees and seven parents with psychiatric disabilities, barriers and facilitators are identified. Implications for the child welfare and legal professions, and for future research, are highlighted.