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Professor Jennifer Drobac talked with NPR affiliate WBAA for a story about the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. With Indiana poised to consider abortion restrictions during a special legislative session July 25, advocates and health providers are concerned about the language potential laws will utilize.

Opening abortion providers to prosecution will have a chilling effect on healthcare even with exceptions to save the life of the mother, Professor Drobac said in the story. An exception to protect the life and health of the mother could offer more protection, she said.

“This is about women’s liberty, bodily integrity, autonomy,” Professor Drobac said in the story of the Dobbs decision. “To fail to acknowledge that in the majority opinion leaves women and families vulnerable to the types of new legislation that could go into effect in Indiana.”

“The question becomes: how bad will it get,” she added. “And it could get very bad.”

Professor Drobac is a widely known expert in sexual harassment law. She is an author of the textbook, Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases and Practice, recently published by Carolina Academic Press. She co-authored the book with Professor Carrie N. Baker of Smith College and Professor Rigel C. Oliveri of the University of Missouri School of Law.  Professor Drobac is at work on her next book, The Myth of Consent, which is under contract with Cambridge University Press. That work will explore the neuroscience of adult decision making and how the science should influence law reform, particularly the law of consent. She is a Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law.