GRACE E. HOWARD, PHD

Grace Howard is an Associate Professor of Justice Studies at San José State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at Rutgers University, with concentrations in Women and Politics and Public Law. Her newest book, T he Pregnancy Police: Conceiving Crime, Arresting Personhood is out now with University of California Press!

Dr. Howard has authored several published works, including "The Pregnancy Police: Surveillance, Regulation, and Control" in Harvard Law and Policy Review, The Gender of Crime (2nd edition), "The Limits of Pure White: Raced Reproduction in the Methamphetamine Crisis," in the Women's Rights Law Reporter, and "Informed or Misinformed Consent?: Abortion Policy in the United States," published in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

Dr. Howard is engaged in public scholarship on reproductive politics and law, with expertise on the criminalization of pregnancy, abortion, contraception, miscarriage, and eugenics. Her analysis and commentary have been featured in national and international news outlets including Huffington Post, BBC News, Telemundo, US News & World Report, Truthout, AP News, and NPR.

Dr. Howard was a Public Voices Fellow with The Op-Ed Project for the 2023-2024 academic year. She was an American Fellow with the American Association for University Women for the 2016-2017 academic year and is Co-Director of the Rutgers University Informed Consent Project.

Dr. Howard's research areas include reproductive law and politics, law and society, bioethics, criminal justice, gender and public policy, feminist theory, and critical race theory.

Her body of work explores reproductive law and policy, and the dimensions of legal personhood for people with the capacity for pregnancy.

Dr. Grace Howard's CV

Recent News

Grace talked to Carolina Bologna at Huffington Post about the impact of Florida's abortion ban on treating Representative Kat Cammack's ectopic pregnancy.

Grace was thrilled to be a guest on the Free Her podcast to talk about the criminalization of pregnancy, and pregnancy and incarceration more broadly. This podcast is really excellent, and I feel so special to have been included!

Grace presented at the Inaugural Politics and Gender Conference at Rutgers University!

Michele Goodwin, Liz Kukura, and Kim Mutcherson honored me by serving as readers for this Readers Meet Author panel!

At the Law and Society Association meeting in Chicago, Grace was honored to join in conversation with Kim Mutcherson, Liz Chiarello, Zakiya Luna, Maya Manian, Jennifer Miller, Karen Thompson, and Katie Watson, for a roundtable discussion entitled "Losing the Rhetorical War: Pregnancy Criminalization, Fetal Personhood, and the Need for New Strategies; The session was incredible, and we all made a new core memory when a man walked into the room mid-panel to take a chair, from the very front of the room, for himself.

Grace talked about The Pregnancy Police at the University of Washington!

Grace talked about The Pregnancy Police at the Seattle University.

Grace was honored to celebrate the 20th anniversary of At Women's Expense by Cynthia Daniels, along with Amanda Roberti and Erin Heidt-Forsythe at the Western Political Science Association meeting.

Grace was thrilled that Monica McLemore, Annie Menzel, and Cynthia Daniels agreed to serve as readers for her readers meet author panel at the Western Political Science Association meeting in April!

Grace talked to Andrea González-Ramírez at The Cut about criminalizing pregnancy loss.

Grace joined ANSIRH at The Bixby Center, UCSF for the day to talk about The Pregnancy Police.

Grace's review of Professor Caitlin Killian's book Failing Moms was published in Gender & Society.

Grace gave a book talk at UC Berkeley Law, at the Center for Reproductive Rights and Justice.

Grace gave an interview on KCBS about the developing interstate abortion battle between Louisiana and New York.

Grace (along with Tanya Bakhru) is co-authoring an abortion book on contract with Sage for the "What do we know and what should we do about...?" series.