Carleton Breakfast Club April 11, 2024

A substantial part of being American is wrestling with what that means. Even as the 13th Amendment continues to define any incarcerated person as a slave/non-person, recent legal decisions out of the United States Supreme Court and the Alabama Supreme Court have made it clear that personhood does and should apply to fetuses and fertilized eggs. This talk will explore the bumpy road that ties these diametrically opposed positions together, how that struggle informs a legal vision for justice, and how seeing personhood within the chaotic swirl that is humanity is the only way forward to achieving dreams of equality. Karen Thompson '93 is the Legal Director of Pregnancy Justice, whose mission is to protect and advance pregnant people's rights by defending those who have been criminalized because of their pregnancies. Karen was previously a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the Innocence Project, where she helped exonerate four people convicted for crimes they did not commit. Karen has decades of experience fighting for civil rights and liberties and racial justice in courts nationwide. A proud former Knightingale, Karen spends her free time learning to play the cello, honing her jazz vocals, and helicopter parenting her two elder dachshunds, Miles Davis and Jolene.