Teaching Dobbs to Disrupt U.S. Hegemony and Build Feminist Solidarities

Abstract

The Dobbs decision has created both opportunities and challenges in the classroom. On one hand, Dobbs animated student interest, increasing awareness of reproduction. On the other hand, media coverage of Dobbs primed students—particularly those who had not been exposed to reproductive justice—to think about abortion access in isolation from other topics and from an exclusively U.S. perspective. In this article, I discuss my experience teaching the Politics of Reproduction in Fall 2022. Among other goals, I wanted to expose students to La Marea Verde, or the “Green Wave,” of countries expanding abortion access in Latin America. By teaching Latin American abortion politics in relation to the Dobbs decision, I aim to disrupt U.S. hegemony. Specifically, teaching about the Green Wave highlights the possibility of organizing for reproductive justice outside the parameters of the state and challenges the logic of American Exceptionalism, which works to justify and normalize intersectional inequalities.