Patty Skuster specializes in international reproductive rights and the regulation of abortion globally. She is the Beck Chair in Law at Temple Law School, where she teaches Health and Human Rights and Reproductive Health Law. She is also a Fellow with the Center for Public Health Law Research.
Skuster’s work aims to improve understanding of abortion regulation and the effect of reproductive health law on public health outcomes. She is interested in how criminalization influences public health in the context of abortion and other stigmatized behaviors.
Skuster has authored dozens of publications including guidebooks, briefing papers, trainings, articles, and reports on such topics as partnering with law enforcement, regulation of abortion, US foreign policy, and self-managed abortion. Prior to joining Temple Law School, Skuster spent 15 years with Ipas, a global health organization. Her research at Ipas focused on legal risk from self-managed abortion, reproductive health in humanitarian settings, and regulation of self-managed and telemedicine abortion. She worked to improve reproductive health law and policy through training and publications for ministry officials, parliamentarians, advocates, and lawyers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Skuster also established and oversaw Ipas’s US federal policy program and led work with United Nations and African human rights bodies.
She began her career documenting the impact of US foreign policy on abortion, with the Center for Reproductive Rights and PAI, and worked in the office of US Senator Barbara Boxer. Skuster taught International Human Rights Law at Drexel University Kline School of Law and Health and Human Rights in the MPH program at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated with a J.D. and M.P.P. from the University of Michigan.