Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Leaders Together in the Same Room: Reverend Anne Fowler and Francis Hogan

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Abortion is one of the most passionate, divisive, and emotional issues in the 2024 election campaign. The debate is often dominated by extremes on both sides. But what if passionate pro-life and pro-choice movement leaders could get together in the same room and learn how to disagree better? That is exactly what happened in Massachusetts, beginning in the mid 1990's. Leaders on both sides held secret discussions over the course of several years . These wrenching conversations began in the mid 1990’s at a very difficult time— after two women were murdered by an anti-abortion extremist in Brookline, Massachusetts. We hear from The Reverend Anne Fowler, an Episcopal Priest who served on the board of directors for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and lawyer Fran Hogan, who's been President of Women Affirming Life. They’re among the six women profiled in the 2023 documentary, "The Abortion Talks". This interview was first published last year.

Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the most passionate and emotional issues in the 2024 election campaign is abortion.
0:06.0	The debate is often dominated by extremes on both sides.
0:10.0	There is no shortage of fear and living.
0:14.0	But what if passionate pro-life and pro-choice movement leaders
0:18.0	could get together in the same room
0:20.0	and learn how to disagree better,
0:22.0	showing personal respect for people on the other side of the debate.
0:26.0	That is exactly what happened in Massachusetts.
0:30.0	Leaders on both sides came together for years of secret talks.
0:35.0	These wrenching conversations began in the mid-1990s at a very difficult time
0:41.0	after two women were murdered by an anti-abortion extremist.
0:45.0	At first these abortion talks between six women leaders, three from each side,
0:50.0	were tense and difficult.
0:52.0	We learned what happened next. This is Let's Find Common Ground.
1:12.6	I'm Ashley Milntight.
1:14.2	And I'm Richard Davies.
1:15.8	Opinion polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans say they support the right of women to have
1:21.5	an abortion, but within certain limits such as the right of women to have an abortion but within certain limits such as the length of a pregnancy.
1:26.0	In recent decades, public opinions about abortion haven't actually changed that much.
1:32.0	But in the last two years since the US Supreme Court
1:34.8	overturned Roe versus Wade, the politics of abortion in many states have become
1:39.5	more heated. In this episode we hear again from the Reverend Anne Fowler, an Episcopal priest
	...

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