SIMON HELLER is a staff attorney at the Center and former Director of the Domestic Legal Program. Mr. Heller, who has litigated for women's reproductive rights for over fifteen years, successfully argued Stenberg v. Carhart, the challenge to Nebraska's ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortions, before the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2000. He is currently the lead attorney in the challenge to the FDA's failure to approve the emergency contraceptive drug Plan B for over-the-counter use. In addition, he has spearheaded efforts to have "Choose Life" license plates declared unconstitutional as violative of the First Amendment, and has won cases restoring Medicaid funding for abortion in Minnesota and Montana. Prior to helping found the Center, Heller was a staff attorney at the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, where he worked on challenges to abortion bans in Guam, Louisiana, and Utah. Mr. Heller received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School 1986 and a Master's degree in German from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is currently working towards a doctorate in Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana.

VIVIEN LABATON is a Staff Attorney with the Domestic Legal Program. Prior to becoming a Staff Attorney, Ms. Labaton was a Blackmun Fellow at the Center. Ms. Labaton clerked for the Honorable Constance Baker Motley, a United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York. A graduate of Barnard College, Ms. Labaton earned her J.D. at NYU Law School. Prior to law school, she was the founding Director of the Third Wave Foundation, which supports young women and transgender activists working for progressive social change nationwide. Ms. Labaton has also worked with a local women’s organization in Cambodia, and currently serves on Third Wave's Board of Directors. She is the co-editor, with Dawn Lundy Martin, of The Fire This Time, a collection of essays by young activists on the future of feminism.

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