In a disheartening but long-anticipated 6-3 decision, the Supreme court struck down 1973’s Roe vs. Wade decision, eliminating constitutional protection for abortion. In this first episode after a 2021 hiatus, the hosts examine several threads in the anti-abortion movement’s generations-long trajectory:
The origins of the modern anti-abortion movement, and Francis Schaeffer’s role in bringing the “Catholic Issue” to a relatively indifferent Evangelical world in the late 70s
The movement’s strategic shift in the early 80s from totalizing “fetus-centered” to “woman-centered” and “conscience-centered” arguments against abortion and incrementalist legislative goals
The rise of deceptive “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” and their legally-fraught history of deceiving patients seeking abortions; Kristin discusses her experiences with the young fundamentalist women who keeping them running, and the danger of assuming the movement is primarily a male one
The tension between the anti-abortion movement’s “anything is justified to stop murder” rhetoric, and its opposition to sex education and contraceptives; Jeff discusses his own history as a committed anti-abortion ideologue in the 90s, and the role that tension had in convincing him to leave — and eventually support abortion rights.
Articles and essays in this episode include:
The Changing Strategies of the Anti-Abortion Movement, 2021, by Daniela Mansbach and Alisa Von Hagel, Political Research Associates
Foot Soldier of the Patriarchy, June 2022, Kristin Rawls, Revue
On Murder and The Other, June 2009, Jeff Eaton, Growing Up Goddy
Books mentioned or cited in this episode include:
Women against Abortion: Inside the Largest Moral Reform Movement of the Twentieth Century, 2017, Karissa Haugeberg
After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate, 2015, Mary Ziegler
Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present, 2020, Mary Ziegler
Handbook for a Post-Roe America, 2019, Robin Marty
Whatever Happened To the Human Race? 1979, Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop
Crazy for God, 2008, Frank Schaeffer
S2E01: The Post-Roe Episode