A Dialogue on Abortion

Professor Carol Sanger and Columbia Law School student Madeline Hopper ’18 recently sat down to discuss Sanger’s new book.

Back in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Roe v. Wade that a woman’s right to an abortion is protected by the 14th Amendment. So why, nearly a half century later, is the right to an abortion still such a contested, controversial issue?  

Carol Sanger, Columbia Law School’s Barbara Aronstein Black Professor of Law, addresses this question in her new book, About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in Twenty-First-Century America (Harvard University Press, 2017). In the book, Sanger, an expert on reproductive rights, family law, and abortion regulation, writes of the “enduring grip that abortion holds on American society.”

“There is an entire structure of American law and culture aimed at causing women to feel guilty about ending—or even considering ending—a pregnancy,” she says.

Madeline Hopper ’18, president of the Law School’s chapter of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, recently sat down with Sanger to discuss her reasons for tackling the subject matter, her insights into the struggles of women who are considering or have had abortions, and her predictions for the future of this issue.

READ: The New Yorker’s Review of About Abortion and commentary on the book by Professor David Pozen. 

WATCH: Sanger and Hopper discuss Roe v. Wade.

WATCH: How does fetal imagery play a role in the abortion conversation?

WATCH: What are the next steps for future advocates and the challenges they will face?

About Abortion will be released on March 27. That evening, a panel of legal scholars, writers, and advocates will convene at the Law School for a public discussion on the work.

You can watch Sanger and Hopper’s full interview here:

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Posted on March 24, 2017