CBH TALK - The Abortion Fight American Style: Roe, then Casey, and Now...?

Meet the real people in the five decade-long struggle for legal abortion as we once again find this divisive issue at play in the Supreme Court and on the state level. Joshua Prager wrote the new book The Family Roe: An American Story which sets the record straight on Roe (whose real name is Norma McCorvey). Kathryn Kolbert, argued the 1992 Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, widely credited with saving Roe, and co-authored the recent book Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom. And Julie F. Kay, co-authored Controlling Women and played a pivotal role in the legalization of abortion in Ireland. They come together in a conversation that probes the messy and compromising realities of past victories and takes a clear-eyed look at what the future may bring at this newest make-or-break moment for abortion rights. 

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Participants 

 

Investigative journalist Joshua Prager has written for the Atlantic, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, he is the author of The Echoing Green (a Washington Post Best Book of the Year). He dedicated eleven years to researching and writing The Family Roe: An American Story, described as “an honest glimpse into the American soul” (Anand Giridharadas, the New York Times).

Photo by Peter van Agtmael

 

 

 

 

Kathryn Kolbert has had a long and distinguished career advancing women’s rights. In 1992, she made her second appearance before the US Supreme Court, arguing Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which has been widely credited with saving Roe v. Wade. A cofounder of the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Athena Film Festival, she also created NPR’s Justice Talking and the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College. She is the co-author with Julie F. Kay of Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.

 

Julie F. Kay began her legal career at the Center for Reproductive Rights and then helped lay the groundwork for the legalization of abortion in Ireland by challenging the country’s ban before the European Court of Human Rights in ABC v. Ireland. She now develops innovative legal and policy reforms to advance gender equality, promote religious freedom, and protect parenting rights of people leaving ultra-religious communities. She is the co-author with Kathryn Kolbert of Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.