Honoree Profile: Sylvia Law

Sylvia Law has been a leading legal scholar of health law, women's rights, and constitutional law. An expert on Medicaid,when Roe v Wade was decided in 1973 she realized Medicaid coverage for abortion could be a major area of conflict.

Believing that federal law clearly mandated coverage, she helped file the first federal case challenging a Pennsylvania rule requiring doctors seeking Medicaid reimbursement to provide certification that the abortion was a medical necessity. She and others continued litigating Medicaid abortion in every state and fought the issue in Congress and state legislatures until 1980.

In 1976 with Harriet Pilpel, Law helped persuade the ACLU to create a Reproductive Freedom Project. She served on its advisory committee until 1992 when, with Janet Benshoof, she helped create the Center for Reproductive Rights. She continues to serve on that organization's board.

Law served on the board of NOW LDEF from 1977 to 1981 and has continued to work with NOW on its projects relating to poor women.

In 1980 she served with Nan Hunter as counsel to the feminist anti-censorship talk force and from 1985 to 1989 was chair of Non-Traditional Employment for Women. She has done political and legal work on the debate about pornography,written articles about the intersection of sexism and heterosexism, and about feminist perspectives on commercial sex.

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