Events

In the fight surrounding Roe v. Wade, it's easy to lose sight of the many other ways that access to reproductive healthcare can be limited or denied. Two Obermann scholars, Lina-Maria Murillo and Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz, talk with local healthcare providers and researchers to provide a fuller landscape of reproductive justice in the Midwest. Featured speakers: Lastascia Coleman, nurse-midwife, UIHC Nicole Novak, research faculty, College of Public Health Meagan Thompson, nurse-midwife, UIHC Obermann Conversations are co-sponsored by the UI Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Iowa City Public Library.

The changing racial composition of the United States has long animated white nationalists. Lina-Maria Murillo discusses how the history of abortion before Roe v. Wade and the battle for reproductive rights intersected with anxieties regarding "overpopulation" in the Midwest, and the debates among white supremacists regarding the future orientation of their movement. This event was presented in collaboration with the Center for Research on Gender & Women, Chican@ & Latin@ Studies Program, the Department of History, and  Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS) at UW-Madison. Lina-Maria Murillo is Assistant Professor in the departments of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, History, and Latina/o/x Studies at the University of Iowa. She is completing her first book titled Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S-Mexico Borderlands under contract with University of North Carolina Press. Several grants and fellowships, including from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the Ford Foundation, have supported her research. Murillo’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Rewire News, Nursing Clio and Notches. Her 2021 article, “Birth Control, Border Control: The Movement for Contraception in El Paso, Texas 1936–1940”, published in the Pacific Historical Review, is the winner of the Jensen-Miller prize for best article in the field of women and gender history from the Western History Association. With Professor Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz, Murillo also co-directs the Reproductive Justice and Maternal Politics Obermann collaborative at the University of Iowa.

Reproductive Justice and Feminist Liberatory Politics is the sixth (and final) plenary panel of Hypatia’s Promise: Opening the Archives, Charting Feminist Futures, the 40th Anniversary Conference of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Panelists: Krystale Littlejohn (Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon) Lina-Maria Murillo (Assistant Professor of Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies, History, and Latina/o/x Studies, University of Iowa) Shelley Tremain (PhD in Philosophy, Coordinator of BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY)

Hear about abortion laws before and after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution which were the focus of the friend-of-the-court brief co-authored by Patricia Cline Cohen in “Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” and submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. Cline Cohen is professor of history emerita at UC Santa Barbara. She will be joined by Lina-Maria Murillo of the University of Iowa history department to present information about the history of abortion access in Iowa. This program is hosted by the Education Committee of the League of Women Voters of Johnson County (LWVJC), and cosponsored by the Iowa City Public Library.

In this week’s episode of then & now, we delve into the complex history of reproductive justice in El Paso, Texas, a key city along the U.S.-Mexico border that has shaped broader conversations around race, health, and community care. Guest interviewer Professor Elizabeth O’Brien speaks with Professor Lina-Maria Murillo, a leading scholar in reproductive justice whose research focuses on gender, race, and class in reproductive care, particularly in border regions. Murillo’s upcoming book, Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (https://uncpress.org/book/9781469682594/fighting-for-control/) , investigates the legacy of reproductive activism along the Texas border and the significant impact of Chicana and Mexican-American women on the fight for reproductive autonomy. Drawing from her research, Murillo examines the first U.S.-Mexico border birth control clinic, opened in El Paso in 1937, which became a battleground for debates over contraception, racialized fears, and efforts to restrict immigration. She explains how Texas’ history of white nationalist ideals still influences its restrictive reproductive policies, impacting marginalized communities as part of a broader vision for a ‘white metropolis.’ Murillo also highlights how past prejudices persist in Texas today, with grassroots Chicana-led health networks offering care alternatives for poor and immigrant communities, even enabling medical migration across borders. Ultimately, Murillo advocates for proactive reproductive justice through voting and grassroots community care, noting that marginalized communities cannot rely solely on traditional power structures.    Elizabeth O’Brien is an Assistant Professor in the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History, specializing in the history of reproductive health in Mexico. Professor O’Brien is also a member of the cross-field group in the History of Gender and Sexuality. Professor O’Brien's 2023 book on colonialism and reproductive healthcare in Mexico, Surgery and Salvation (https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2funcpress.org%2fbook%2f9781469675879%2fsurgery-and-salvation%2f&c=E,1,K6SMMY85oSKT-tcN0Mwt8KAt3SfdxP6yABcAklJrg9Y24Sgc2DZOsIkhOcFskhkneOjHGUNQJdLQYnr_LoujOSzuoAM0Gl2CIFoHbtsbS1Kj3Q,,&typo=1) , received the 2024 Best Book Award from the Nineteenth-Century Section of the Latin American Studies Association.    Lina-Maria Murillo is an Assistant Professor in Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, and History at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on borderlands, women’s health and reproductive justice, Latina/o/x studies, and social justice movements. Professor Murillo’s upcoming book, Fighting for Control (UNC Press), will be released in January 2025. Professor Roth is also working on two additional projects: Making Gilead: White Demographic Decline and the End of Democracy, and a biography of abortion rights pioneer Patricia Maginnis, who organized a cross-border abortion network before Roe v. Wade. 

Politics has a short memory. And consequently, it’s challenging to remember that the movement for reproductive rights does not begin with Dobbs or even Roe v. Wade. People here in Iowa and elsewhere have been locked in a fight for reproductive freedom that far predates any of us. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, host Zachary Oren Smith chats with Dr. Lina-Maria Murillo, a scholar of power and reproductive rights. Iowa Starting Line’s community editor Amie Rivers joins to talk about Sen. Joni Ernst’s sudden warmth towards Trump’s Pete Hegseth, Iowa Democrats return to Summer EBT, and Food and Water Watch’s new analysis on the disparity between polluters and the people who drink the water. Links 1. Amid pressure, Ernst says she’ll ‘support’ Hegseth through nomination process (Iowa Starting Line): http://xn--amid%20pressure,%20ernst%20says%20shell%20support%20hegseth%20through%20nomination%20process-gc82dscn/ 2. Democrats will return to Des Moines with legislation to feed Iowa kids during the summer (Iowa Starting Line): https://iowastartingline.com/2024/12/11/democrats-summer-ebt-legislature/ 3. Iowa Factory Farms Penalized Less Than $750K For 10 Years Of Illegal Pollution, New Analysis Finds (Food & Water Watch): https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/12/09/iowa-factory-farms-penalized-less-than-750k-for-10-years-of-illegal-pollution-new-analysis-finds/ 4. Iowans removing fallopian tubes, getting long-term birth control as threats to reproductive freedom loom (Iowa Starting Line): https://iowastartingline.com/2024/12/06/birth-control-tube-removal/ Guest: Dr. Lina-Maria Murillo is an assistant professor in Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies and History at the University of Iowa. Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line with music by Avery Mossman. We are a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

Darrel and chats with Dr. Lina-Maria Murillo, Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and History at the University of Iowa, about her research at the intersections of borderlands history and reproductive justice. Imagining Latinidades Episode 17 March 10, 2020 ★ Episode details: https://share.transistor.fm/s/a46dd756 ★ Additional episodes: https://podcast.imagininglatinidades.com

Welcome to the second event of the Religion and Reproductive Politics Virtual Speaker Series! Sponsored by the Reproductive Righteousness Project (www.reproright.com) and the Luce-AAR Advancing Public Scholarship Grant program, and organized by Drs. Micki Burdick, Risa Cromer, and Lea Taragin-Zeller, this series focuses on emerging scholarly and advocacy voices at the intersections of religion and reproductive justice. Oct 15, 2024: “Past and Potentials of Religion, Race & Reproduction," this free virtual conversation featured a conversation between two incredible historians of race, religion, and reproductive justice: • Dr. Lina-Maria Murillo is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies and History at the University of Iowa. Her forthcoming monograph with UNC Press is entitled Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands. • Dr. Elizabeth O'Brien is an Assistant Professor of History at UCLA. Her award-winning monograph, Surgery and Salvation: The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico, 1770–1940, was recently published with UNC Press.