Welcome to Beg to Beg to Differ, the Bullworks Weekly Roundtable

discussion featuring civil conversation across the political spectrum.

We range from generally center left to center right.

I'm Will Salitan, a writer at the Bullwork, and I'm sitting in this week for Monicharran.

I'm joined by our regular panel of Bill Galston with the Brookings Institution and the Wall Street Journal,

Linda Chavez of the Niskanin Center, and Damon Linker who writes Eyes on the Right, for Substack.

Our special guest this week is Francis Kistling, who has played a central role in the study and

practice of abortion around the world.

She was president of Catholics for choice for 25 years, co-founded the Global Fund for Women,

and currently teaches reproductive health ethics at UNAM, a university in Mexico.

Welcome, one in all. Let's start off with a topic that's been in the

news for the past couple of weeks, thanks to the Supreme Court, and it's likely to be

with us through the midterms and beyond, and of course the topic is abortion.

Francis, you are the wisest person I know on this issue and you've written about it from many

perspectives. Let me ask you to start with the pro-choice perspective.

Right now the Biden administration and the Democratic Party

generally are being widely criticized for not doing enough in response to the Dobbs decision

that struck down Roe versus Wade. For people who are upset about the court's

ruling and want to do what they can to protect women's access to abortion,

what exactly should they be doing? Where should they focus their efforts and where should they not focus their efforts? I'll start

with where I think they should focus their efforts and that is on access to abortion services in states where it is legal and is

likely to remain as legal in those states as it is today. Places like Illinois, New York, California, Washington state, the major urban areas.

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