Slow Burn - Roe v. Wade | 2. Life or Death
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2022
⏱️ 50 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Jack and Barbara Willke got their start on the Catholic speaking circuit talking about the pleasure of sex within marriage. Their daughter would convince them to shift their focus to another hot-button issue. The Willkes’ Handbook on Abortion, and the photographs they distributed along with it, would help kickstart the right-to-life movement.
To see the cover of the Handbook on Abortion, some of the photos the Willkes used, and the brochure “Life or Death,” go to slate.com/handbook.
Season 7 of Slow Burn is produced by Susan Matthews, Samira Tazari, Sophie Summergrad, and Sol Werthan.
Derek John is Sr. Supervising Producer of Narrative Podcasts.
Editorial direction by Josh Levin, Derek John and Johanna Zorn. Merritt Jacob is our Technical Director.
Our theme music is composed by Alexis Cuadrado. Artwork by Derreck Johnson based on a photo provided by Robert Wheeler.
The season’s reporting was supported by a grant from the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode includes descriptions of graphic images. |
| 0:04.0 | In the fall of 1970, Marie Wilkie looked like most of her classmates at Notre Dame's Women's College. |
| 0:11.0 | It was the age of many skirts, and I remember we kept shortening them and shortening them. |
| 0:18.0 | And I had long straight hair, of course, everybody did. |
| 0:22.0 | Marie made the most of being away from home. |
| 0:25.0 | It was a blast being a college up there. I went to parties constantly. |
| 0:30.0 | But she also took her studies seriously. |
| 0:33.0 | There were lots of lectures, lots of interesting speakers came into Notre Dame and you could go and hear about all sorts of things. |
| 0:42.0 | One of the things she heard about was feminism. |
| 0:45.0 | By the start of Marie's junior year in 1970, women were protesting across the country. |
| 0:51.0 | The legislature had consistently refused to recognize the fundamental right of women to control her own body. |
| 1:00.0 | Thanks to the Women's Liberation Movement, abortion was being talked about openly in all kinds of places, including in Marie's dorm. |
| 1:10.0 | You stay up half the night talking about what do you believe and why do you believe it and who's right and control of your own body. |
| 1:19.0 | You know that if you got pregnant and didn't want it, well, it wasn't an interfere with your life or your career or your plans, you just have the abortion. |
| 1:31.0 | Marie wasn't sure if she was on board with any of that, because it seemed so focused on me, me, me, my rights, my time, my exercise, what I want. |
| 1:42.0 | And I thought, I'm just not sure that's how I want to live my life. |
| 1:48.0 | When Marie left for winter break, she didn't know where she stood. She wanted to talk about all of it with her family back in Cincinnati, Ohio. |
| 1:57.0 | It was Christmas of my junior year, and I came home. Everything was decorated. You know, the big Christmas dinner and stockings hung, and it was all the traditions. |
| 2:11.0 | Marie's mother and father were Catholic, just like she was. And in their community, they were pretty well known. |
| 2:19.0 | You might know them best as sex educators. I give you Dr. and Mrs. Jack and Barbara Wilkie. |
| 2:28.0 | Jack and Barbara have made a name for themselves with their series of books and lectures. |
| 2:34.0 | As we go along in our talk, you'll hear us mention our children. I'm Rian Treesy, our 16 and 14. Charlie and Joe are wrecking crew, our 8 and 7. |
... |
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