The Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics has been selected to host the 2023 summer conference of the Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility (RC28), an international gathering of hundreds of inequality scholars. We are re-assessing the feasibility of hosting this meeting in a post-Roe v. Wade Michigan. As of today, abortion is still legal in Michigan and the University of Michigan hospitals and doctors continue to provide access to all reproductive health care and abortion services. A current injunction is keeping a 1931 anti-abortion Michigan law from going into immediate effect now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty about what the future looks like.
I hope that there will soon be more clarity and a return to a reliable reproductive rights situation in Michigan. If that does not happen, we will need to cancel the Ann Arbor RC28 meeting. I would not want any woman of reproductive age to miss the conference because participation may jeopardize her health.
For further relevant information see:
- a twitter thread by Washtenaw County’s prosecuting attorney Eli Savit: https://tinyurl.com/4uh2pcbz
- an open letter from a group of economists to the American Economic Association: https://tinyurl.com/mr2d3ns2
We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates through our conference website.
Fabian T. Pfeffer
Director, Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Research Associate Professor, Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
