The Complexities of Forming a Family: Is it harder for same sex female couples?

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode deals with discussions of in/fertility and/or baby loss.

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In this episode, we have an enlightening conversation with Jaime Gher, a reproductive justice lawyer who has dedicated over 20 years to advancing reproductive rights and justice. Jaime shares her personal journey through both biomedical and social infertility, including the challenges she faced in creating her family using assisted reproductive technologies.

From her work at the United Nations to opening her own private practice in California, Jaime's story is one of resilience and advocacy. Join us as we delve into her experiences and the broader implications for reproductive rights worldwide.

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Jaime Gher is a reproductive justice lawyer fighting for the human rights of women, gender-diverse individuals, and marginalized and criminalized populations worldwide. Jaime has worked to advance reproductive rights and justice for over twenty years at the global and regional levels, working within law firms, the United Nations, within international and national NGOs and as an independent consultant.

During that time she also faced both biomedical and social infertility. She was eventually able to have three children with the support of assisted reproductive technologies and donors, but the process was not easy. If face had to leave her job at the United Nations and relocate from Europe to her home state of California to access ART services because at the time, many European countries did not permit lesbians to undergo IVF and/or permit gamete donation. She also faced discrimination in terms of insurance coverage for IVF.

These experiences of family building left an impression on Jaime as a legal professional and a mom. Then, in 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the constitutional decision that recognized a federal right to abortion, Jaime decided to direct her litigation and advocacy back to the USA. She was committed to challenging draconian criminal abortion bans, prenatal personhood initiatives, and legal threats to assisted reproduction and surrogacy.

In addition to consulting with civil and human rights organizations, she started her own private practice—Family-Advocates— to support individuals and couples seeking to create their families with the assistance of ART and surrogacy. In addition to providing coaching and support for individuals and couples facing infertility, she also provides legal services around family formation, including drafting and negotiating donor and surrogacy contracts, and to secure legal parentage through pre- and post-birth orders, adoption and stepparent adoption.

Through her practice, Jaime wants to humanize fertility treatment and to advocate for greater accessibility for all people to build their families in this way. In addition to Jaime’s private practice, she works as a Senior Legal Advisor with the Global Justice Center to support national-level strategy development and advocacy to promote safe abortion access for all people. She also works as a Senior Program Manager in the Disability and Sexuality program at CREA (a global-south-based feminist organization). There she supports the conceptualization and visioning of the organization’s strategic role at the intersections of disability, sexuality and gender.

Jaime has also worked as a Senior Legal Advisor and Strategic Litigation Specialist with Amnesty International, Human Rights Advisor and Programme Officer with the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, and a Global Advocacy Fellow with the Center for Reproductive Rights. In those roles, she has undertaken international litigation and advocacy before the United Nations and regional human rights bodies and supported national-level advocacy with partner organizations worldwide.

Jaime holds an LL.M. in international law and gender from American University, Washington College of Law, a J.D. from the University of San Francisco, School of Law, and a B.A. in sociology from the University of California Santa Barbara. She is a proud mother of three, a former NCAA gymnast, and an avid film enthusiast.

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-- SEASON 4 SPONSOR:

Apricity https://www.apricityfertility.com/uk