The State of Abortion One Year Post Dobbs: Frances Kissling Returns To The Unspeakable

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2023

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's been exactly a year since the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade, thereby eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion. Last May, shortly after that decision was leaked to the press, bioethicist and legendary abortion rights activist Frances Kissling visited The Unspeakable to talk about the likely implications of this ruling. Now Frances is back to reflect on what's transpired since then, whether things are better or worse than many people feared, and what the downstream political effects have been. She talks about organizational efforts on the part of medical providers, activists, and even airplane pilots to get women to places where abortion is legally available and how American women are actually now traveling to Mexico to get safe and legal abortions. Finally, she expands on her comments from last May about how the "abortion on demand" messaging of the pro-choice side contributed to the extreme polarization that has made compromise impossible.

Frances is president of Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy and was president of Catholics for Choice from 1982 until 2007. She worked as an abortion provider in New York State in the early 1970s, before the passage of Roe, which she talked about in her May 8, 2022 interview on The Unspeakable. She just celebrated her 80th birthday and she stays over time for paying subscribers to talk about what it's like to be 80, how she was once told she'd die unless someone donated a kidney to her, and, finally, what it's like to grow older without children or a partner (it has its upsides!) To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at https://meghandaum.substack.com/.

Guest Bio:

Frances Kissling is currently President of the Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy in Washington, DC and a professor of philosophy and ethics. She was the president of Catholics for Choice from 1982 to 2007 and has been working in the abortion rights movement since the very early 1970s.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Down. My guest is bioethicist and legendary abortion rights activist Francis Kissley.
0:13.3	Francis was here a little over a year ago, shortly after the word got out that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade,
0:21.4	and it's been almost a year to the day, June 24th, that the court officially released that
0:27.3	decision. So I decided to bring Francis back to reflect on what's transpired since then,
0:33.2	whether things are better or worse than many people feared and what the downstream
0:37.3	political effects have been. In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground. whether things are better or worse than many people feared and what the downstream political
0:37.8	effects have been. In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground. Francis talks about what
0:43.3	kinds of organizational efforts are underway to get women to places where abortion is available.
0:49.4	And that means efforts on the parts of medical providers, activists, and even airplane pilots. She explains how
0:55.9	American women are actually now traveling to Mexico to get safe and legal abortions, how doctors
1:01.6	have become beholden to the lawyers representing their own hospitals, and how the political
1:06.4	extremes makes consensus and compromise impossible on this issue. Now, Francis is an amazing person.
1:14.6	She is the president of the Center for Health, Ethics, and Social Policy, and she was president
1:20.2	of Catholics for Choice from 1982 until 2007. She worked as an abortion provider in New York State in the early 1970s before the passage of
1:30.9	Roe when abortion was only legal in a couple of states.
1:35.0	And she talked about that in our last conversation.
1:38.1	So if you didn't hear that one, that was the May 8th, 2022 episode.
1:43.0	And I strongly suggest you go back and listen to it.
1:46.2	Frances just celebrated her 80th birthday, and she stays overtime for paying subscribers here
1:51.9	to talk about what it's like to turn 80, how she was once told she would die unless
1:57.6	someone donated a kidney to her and how tons of people offered her their kidneys.
2:02.6	And finally, what it's like to grow older without children or a partner. Spoiler, it has its
	...

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