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Institute for Bioethics logo
Greer Donley

Greer Donley, JD

Associate Faculty

Professional Statement

Greer Donley is a Professor of Law at the University Pittsburgh Law School. She is a national expert on abortion and the law. Donley has published widely and been quoted extensively in the media, especially on topics related to medication abortion, interjurisdictional abortion conflicts, and the impact of abortion bans on other aspects of reproductive healthcare.

Donley’s scholarly works have been published in the Stanford Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Duke Law Review, and Cornell Law Review, among others. Her popular writing often appears in The New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post, and Slate. Her paper, The New Abortion Battleground, co-authored with David S. Cohen and Rachel Rebouché, was downloaded over 20,000 times, covered widely in the media, and cited by the Supreme Court’s dissent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, Donley has regularly applied her expertise to advocacy work. She helped design, draft, and pass the first abortion shield law in Connecticut, which has now been replicated in many states and cities. She also helped draft an FDA Law Scholars amicus brief in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA case and was one of two primary drafters of a citizen petition to the FDA to add miscarriage management to the mifepristone label.

Appointments

  • Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development School of Law
  • Associate Faculty Institute for Bioethics
  • Director of Law & Policy; Core Faculty CONVERGE

Education and Training

  • JD, University of Michigan, 2014

Professional Interests in Bioethics

Representative Publications

  1. An Originalist Critique of Fetal Personhood, 175 Penn. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027) (with William M. Carter, Jr.). 

  2. An Abortion Rights Theory of the Fetus, 67 B.C. L. Rev. 1 (2026) (lead article).

  3. Greer Donley, Are Embryos or Fetuses Brain Dead? Implications for the Abortion Debate, 45 Pace L. Rev. 153 (2024) (invited symposium piece on Bioethics after Dobbs). 

  4. Abortion, Pregnancy Loss, Subjective Fetal Personhood, 75 Vand. L. Rev. 1649 (2022) (with Jill Wieber Lens) (lead article). 

  5. Parental Autonomy over Prenatal End-of-Life Decisions, 105 Minn. L. Rev. 175 (2020).  

  6. Encouraging Maternal Sacrifice: How Regulations Governing the Consumption of Pharmaceuticals in Pregnancy Prioritize Fetal Safety over Maternal Health and Autonomy, 39 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 45 (2015). 

Awards and Honors

  • Board Chair of Women’s Law Project (2024-2026)
  • 2023: Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award in the junior category
  • 2022: Eleventh most downloaded law professor on SSRN
  • 2022: Marion Young Award for Political Engagement 
  • 2021: Robert T. Harper Excellence in Teaching Award 
  • 2020: Haub Law Emerging Scholar in Women, Gender & Law 
  • 2020: SLU and ASLME Health Law Scholar