Retired federal judge says she 'will go anywhere in the country' to represent abortion patients and doctors

A large crowd of protesters stands in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building. — Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022.

Mackenzie Farkus is a production assistant on Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Simmons University with a B.A. in journalism, where she was the editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Simmons Voice.

July 08, 2022

Updated August 07, 2023

In the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court’s recent ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that takes incremental steps to preserve abortion access. As part of the executive order, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the White House Counsel “ will convene private pro bono attorneys, bar associations, and public interest organizations” to provide legal support for those seeking or offering reproductive health care services — including representation for patients who travel out of state for abortion care.

Judge Nancy Gertner, a retired judge for the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, told Boston Public Radio on Friday that she is organizing a group of lawyers to represent “anybody who is charged with an illegal abortion, aiding and abetting abortion, or interstate travel to get an abortion,” along with providing her own legal services to those in need.

“I, for one, will go anywhere in the country to represent anyone charged with any of that,” Gertner said. “I think that there are a number of us who are doing that as well, and [there are a] number of organizations coming up with a list of lawyers who, frankly, will say, ‘We will represent you, and we will clot their courts with representation if they go after these women.’”

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Gertner pointed to previous mass legal movements as an example of what she hopes to achieve.

“One of my law clerks organized something like this in the Bronx when there were stop-and-frisk [policies], bad searches of African American men,” Gertner said, referring to the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policies which were found unconstitutional in 2013. “He went to law firms in New York, and he said, ‘You have younger lawyers who have never been in court. Give them to me, and we'll represent everyone who has been illegally stopped.’”

“What happened was, the stops stopped, because the courts couldn't possibly handle [the cases],” Gertner continued. “That's what we're hoping for here.”