As mentioned in my last post, I have now moved to New York! It has been so great to catch up with friends and to work in the PPFA office for a couple of days. I am realizing that in-person work is something that is very important to me so it was particularly great meeting the other interns and some of my coworkers in person.
Now that orientation is mostly over, it has been interesting to get a feel for what the work actually looks like in a more 'normal' week. I am realizing that a lot of impact litigation work is about writing memos on various legal research topics. The internship is structured, though, such that I will get the opportunity to write on various issues for cases at different stages of the litigation process in multiple states. Everyone has been really great about providing context for an assignment before I get started, which has been very helpful for my own understanding of this work. Along with that, I have been able to join calls with affiliates or other partner organizations and hear everyone talk about strategies or next steps related to ongoing cases.
It has been very interesting to talk with current staff about how much the work has changed over the past year since Dobbs was released. Prior to that decision, much of the reproductive rights litigation was about enforcing the right to an abortion and applying the Planned Parenthood v. Casey undue burden standard. The work was thus quite standardized across different states since it was primarily about applying a nationwide rule. However, now abortion rights has become much more state-by-state. As there is no longer a federal precedent to rely on, organizations like PPFA, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the ACLU, and other abortions-rights groups are having to make unique arguments about the state-specific laws that are being passed based on state Constitutions or precedent. While this is a depressing, scary development in the reproductive rights world, it has been interesting from a research perspective as there are so many questions to answer as we learn more about procedural issues, interpretation issues, and precedents across all of these states.
On a more personal, fun note, it has been great to be in New York City! I got to spend the long weekend at my friend's new rooftop just relaxing and catching up. The last time I was in New York for more than a weekend was back in 2019 when I was a summer intern. It feels very full circle to be back here again as an intern, except now most of my friends are full-time employees as opposed to being students as well. Regardless, one of the many questions I have to answer as I do different internships is where I want to be after graduation, and New York City is a serious consideration. I'm hoping to continue exploring over the next few weeks so I can get an even better idea of what living here would be like.
To wrap up, I'm including a photo below of the pins currently on my backpack! I started adding these pins about five years ago, and I have slowly built up a small collection. I primarily share this picture because they demonstrate my long-standing dedication to this work. The "Vote Pro-Choice" pin is one I grabbed from my 2018 summer internship at NARAL, Pro-Choice America. That internship is what made me decide to go to law school as I realized I wanted to be a reproductive rights lawyer. It has been so grounding to see these pins each day as I now am starting to actually do this work that I have been passionate about for so long.
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