Course Highlight: PHP1681 Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice

At the School of Public Health today, where she is professor of health services, policy and practice, Tobin-Tyler teaches Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice. The undergraduate course explores the historical and social forces that shape reproductive rights in the U.S. by examining the impact laws and policies have on reproductive health, with an emphasis on marginalized communities. Topics include sexuality regulation, eugenics, sterilization, contraception, abortion, barriers to care, assisted reproduction, maternal health disparities, pregnancy and the criminal legal system, and parenting laws. 

“At a time when the legal landscape around reproductive health is shifting dramatically, this course helps students understand reproductive rights and justice within the larger, historical, social and political contexts that shape them,” Tobin-Tyler says. “It also gives them the tools to analyze and advocate for evidence-based reproductive health policies.”

“Professor Tobin-Tyler’s course was deeply impactful,” says Soleena Carrillo Ramanathan, a senior at Brown who took the course last fall. “At an especially tumultuous time for reproductive and maternal health care, it was a source of solace, curiosity and motivation, even at 9 am!” Ramanathan appreciated the course’s integration of community-centered care approaches, like guest lectures from practicing doulas, alongside critical engagement with historical policy and biomedical practices.

“Public health at its best should integrate across disciplines and honor knowledge from those within various fields,” Ramanathan says. “For me, this course epitomized these connections.”