MANA18 Speaker
Melissa Mikesell is Managing Director of the SIA Legal Team. She has over 15 years’ experience in social and economic justice movements and fighting for marginalized communities. She has co-authored a number of publications on self-managed abortion (SMA), including an article published Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, a comprehensive overview of the legal landscape of SMA, as well as primers on the law, amicus briefs, op-eds and legislation. She has overseen research on criminal laws and practices affecting SMA in 50 states, as well as legal questions regarding the relay of information about SMA, importation of pills, and patient privacy laws affecting healthcare workers who treat people who have attempted to end their own pregnancies. She was a co-Principal Investigator on a community-engaged research project to understand perspectives about SMA among communities likely to be impacted by its criminalization, which culminated in a report, SIA in Our Communities.