Renee Knake Jefferson

ALI Elects Wallace B. Jefferson, Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, as Its Next President

Allow me to brag about my amazing husband - Wallace was just elected as the next President of The American Law Institute! Read all about it here www.ali.org/news/article...

At AALS, the Professional Responsibility section put on a spectacular program entitled “The Law Professor’s Role in Protecting Our Legal System,” featuring Renee Knake Jefferson (@legalethics.bsky.social), Scott Cummings, Matthew Diller, Rachel López, and Milan Markovic (@profmarkovic.bsky.social).

LER No. 93 - A Legal Ethics Summer Reading List (06.16.25) The Legal Ethics Roundup - your Monday morning tour of all things related to lawyer and judicial ethics with University of Houston law professor Renee Knake Jefferson

Looking for summer reads? 📚packed in my suitcase & stacked by my bed👀https://legalethics.substack.com/p/ler-no-90-a-legal-ethics-summer-reading-list-tatel-litman-mystal-barkow-harris-hayes-mckean-fagan-adichie-arthur-rubin @leahlitman.bsky.social @elienyc.bsky.social @chrislhayes.bsky.social & more!

Same! On 7/4 🎆

When you finally meet your editor of 5+ years in person...

Thank you Clara Platter @NYUPress.bsky.social for helping me get ideas in my head onto pages and out in the world!

#Shortlisted
#LawDemocratized

And thank you @AALS.bsky.social for bringing us together @ #AALS2025 Annual Mtg San Francisco

ILEC XI 2026 - Save-the-Date! The next International Legal Ethics Conference will be held at the University of Houston December 2-4, 2026

Though it's two years away, I'm already excited for the International Legal Ethics Conference (ILEC) 2026! It will be at Houston (thanks to the amazing Renee Knake Jefferson @legalethics.bsky.social). If you're interested in ethics, it's a can't miss event!

legalethics.substack.com/p/ilec-xi-20...

Best airport terminal for layover yoga? Hands down Honolulu ☀️ #HNL

Behold, the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law Profs starter pack now exists! If that covers you, let me know if you'd like to be added; just @ me! This was just who I could come up with off the top of my head for now.
go.bsky.app/6o999xr

Pregnant at 50, I faced life and death dictated by state borders The national dialog is appallingly simplistic about the "pro-choice" vs. "pro-life" debate. It fails to capture the complexities.

20/20🧵 For more info on repro health: @19thnews.bsky.social @leahlitman.bsky.social @rtraister.bsky.social @lsepper.bsky.social @profmmurray.bsky.social @jillfilipovic.bsky.social @maryrziegler.bsky.social @strictscrutiny.bsky.social @lauraportuondo.bsky.social

www.newsweek.com/pregnant-50-...

Pregnant at 50, I faced life and death dictated by state borders The national dialog is appallingly simplistic about the "pro-choice" vs. "pro-life" debate. It fails to capture the complexities.

19/20🧵 Life and death shouldn't be arbitrarily determined by geographic borders.

When politicians say, "leave it to the states" they mean "leave women to die."

#AbortionIsHealthcare

Read the rest of my story below and please share it if it resonates with you
www.newsweek.com/pregnant-50-...

Tracking Abortion Bans Across the Country The New York Times is tracking the status of abortion laws in each state following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

18/20🧵 I am grateful for the abortion I never wanted and didn't choose, but allowed me to continue living.

It's outrageous that 1 in 3 women live in places where they would not receive the same life-saving care I did.

#AbortionIsHealthcare

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Have No Idea How Women’s Bodies Work We cannot ask women to follow laws written by men who believe our bodies work like a game of ‘Marble Run’

17/20🧵 Lawmakers don't understand biology. We need better education on dangers of ectopic and cancerous molar pregnancies.

Abortion is a safe procedure to save a woman's life & preserve her reproductive organs for future healthy births.

@jessicavalenti.bsky.social
gen.medium.com/anti-abortio...

Opinion | I had a late-term abortion. But saying I’m ‘pro-choice’ is a problem. “Choice” is the last term that feels authentic when describing the predicament my husband and I found ourselves in. We need new words.

16/20🧵 The national dialog is appallingly simplistic about the "pro-choice" vs. "pro-life" debate.

It fails to capture the complexities and complications of conception.

It wrongly contributes to the shaming and blaming of women.

@PostOpinions.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com
wapo.st/3U3TPg8

15/20🧵 Since the 1970s, abortion has been framed as a matter of women's autonomy and choice.

However, my abortion was everything BUT a choice; it was a matter of life or death, and only one life—mine.

#AbortionIsHealthcare

One in Four US Women Expected to Have an Abortion in Their Lifetime

14/20🧵 The only thing more shocking than a pregnancy at 50 is becoming part of the 1 in 4 women who receive an abortion. @guttmacher.bsky.social

Never thought it would be me. As the only child of Southern Baptist evangelicals, I was taught abortion is a sin.
www.guttmacher.org/news-release...

Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable. At least two women in Georgia died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, ProPublica has found. This is one of their stories.

13/20🧵
As I recovered, I thought about the women who have died.

Amber Nicole Thurman needed a routine D&C when fetal tissue failed to expel fully.

B/C of GA law, she didn't survive, and left behind a 6-year-old son.

@propublica.bsky.social
www.propublica.org/article/geor...

Trump Aide Says 'Bleeding Out' Due to Abortion Bans Is Not Real. She Lived It: 'I'm Right Here, Jerk' Trump loyalist John McEntee disputed Kamala Harris' debate line about women nearly dying from abortion bans. It happened to Carmen Broesder in Idaho.

12/20🧵
As I recovered, I thought of women in other states left to suffer

Carmen Broesder endured a painful, nineteen-day miscarriage before ID hospital would treat

Her heart suffered irreparable damage

@RollingStone.com.web.brid.gy @NancyDillon.bsky.social
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

In Oklahoma, a woman was told to wait until she's 'crashing' for abortion care A new study shows women who call the hospitals in Oklahoma get confusing information about the state's abortion bans. One family lived through that confusion with dire consequences last month.

11/20🧵 In OK, woman w/ the same molar preg diagnosis as me was sent to PARKING LOT to wait for heart or organ failure.

"cannot touch you unless you are crashing in front of us or your blood pressure goes so high that you are fixing to have a heart attack."

@NPR.org
www.npr.org/sections/hea...

Woman's positive pregnancy test turns into shocking cancer diagnosis Following her case, Vanessa Drummond is urging people to seek a second opinion if something doesn't feel right.

10/20🧵 After slicing my belly to insert a camera, my dr found no ectopic pregnancy.

Instead, it was a molar pregnancy, which becomes a fast-spreading cancer in the liver & brain if untreated.

I needed a "D&C," AKA a dilation and curettage—an abortion.

www.newsweek.com/womans-posit...

More than 100 pregnant women in distress turned away from ERs: Report One woman was told to "let nature take its course" and sent home without treatment for her ectopic pregnancy.

9/20🧵 Fortunately, I was in Michigan. My dr scheduled surgery.

In some states, I'd be told to wait for egg to explode & bleed out like Kyleigh Thurman. After 3 days of bleeding, the egg growing on her fallopian tube ruptured, destroying her reproductive system.

www.newsweek.com/pregnant-wom...

7 things to know about ectopic pregnancy Ectopic pregnancy is the most common cause of death during the first trimester of pregnancy and a condition that women should know about. Mitchell Creinin, chief of family planning at UC Davis Health,...

8/20🧵 I knew something was wrong when my doctor walked in with a diagram of fallopian tubes.

"Have you heard of an ectopic pregnancy?"

The miracle in my womb was now a ticking timebomb.

"This is a dangerous situation," she explained. "Life-threatening."

health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlin...

GOP's Moreno: Women’s focus on abortion rights is ‘a little crazy’ Just when it seemed Republicans’ rhetoric on abortion rights couldn’t get much worse, Donald Trump and Ohio’s Bernie Moreno weighed in with new comments.

7/20🧵 Ohio GOP Senate candidate Moreno mocked women like me:"especially for women that are like past 50 - I don't think that's an issue for you"

I have news for him.

Women past 50 still have sex, and become pregnant.

I did.

www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo... @maddow.bsky.social @MSNBC.bsky.social

6/20🧵 I texted a photo of the positive pregnancy tests to my husband.

Suddenly something neither of us knew we wanted in both of our second marriages became the most important thing we could ever do together.

As we walked the dog, we envisioned pushing a stroller.

World's Oldest Moms From a great-grandmother who just had her 12th kid to a 66-year-old who lied to get IVF, meet 10 miracle mothers who raise the question how old is too old?

5/20🧵 Oldest mother to conceive naturally is Dawn Brooke @ 59 - she feared publicity.

When Maria del Carmen Bousada IVF birth at 66, many called her "desire to be a mother selfish and irresponsible."

I felt ashamed. I wondered if I shd end the pregnancy.

www.thedailybeast.com/worlds-oldes...

4/20🧵 I pondered names, Evangeline for a girl, after the Brandi Carlile song; Wallace for a boy, after his father.

I also panicked. I Googled "is it safe to have a baby after 50"

The results? Not promising: "high risk," "complications preeclampsia, miscarriage," "likely to suffer a stroke."

3/20🧵The plus sign turned blue, confirming what my body knew but my mind wanted to deny.

I peed on a second stick, just in case the first test was wrong.

Another blue plus sign.

2/20🧵A queasy stomach and swelling breasts were signs I couldn't ignore

I tore open a box of expired pregnancy tests languishing in a far back cabinet.

As I peed carefully on the plastic stick, I did some math.

A baby would graduate high school when I'm 68...

Pregnant at 50, I faced life and death dictated by state borders The national dialog is appallingly simplistic about the "pro-choice" vs. "pro-life" debate. It fails to capture the complexities.

A story I never planned to write but needs to be told - pregnant at 50, facing life and death dictated by state lines.

#AbortionIsHealthcare

Buckle up for a wild ride and a long thread 🧵 1/20

www.newsweek.com/pregnant-50-...

Three years of planning the Wallace B. Jefferson portrait…finally got to celebrate! Lots of laughs, a few tears & a true appreciation of what it means to capture a life in a portrait. ❤️
Read Sam Jefferson’s brilliant speech to honor the historic moment: medium.com/@sjefferson9...