Why are We Still Obsessed with Roe v Wade?
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2022
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For some, 2022 was the year Roe v Wade was overturned. For millions more, abortions rights had been functionally inaccessible for decades. Beyond shaky precedent, Roe was a vessel into which America threw all sorts of hopes, beliefs and fears. But how did this legal decision become a symbol of so much? On this week’s show, host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by abortion law expert Mary Ziegler, who’s new book, Roe: The History of a National Obsession, tries to find the roots of Roe’s incessant pull, and to unpack the meaning from the meta.
In this week’s Amicus Plus segment - the worst of jurisprudence 2022. In a year marked by quite a few legal gut punches, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to run through the most bonkers rulings from the most out-of-control federal judges. They also find a path to hope for justice in 2023.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The row in our culture is not the row of 1973 Supreme Court decision or the 1992 Supreme Court decision. |
| 0:12.0 | So if the Supreme Court is telling you, hey guys, this is over, you can go home now. |
| 0:16.8 | We're not going to talk about abortion in the Constitution anymore. |
| 0:19.5 | History tells us that that's not going to work. |
| 0:29.8 | Hi and welcome to Amicus Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and the Supreme Court. |
| 0:35.7 | I'm Dahlia Lithwick. |
| 0:37.0 | I cover these things for Slate. |
| 0:39.3 | And this week, we wanted our New Year's Eve show to be about life after dobs. |
| 0:45.9 | For the simple reason that 2022, among many, many other things, ended reproductive freedom for about half the population in what will eventually be about half the states and proved to be not just a constitutional earthquake, but also, I think, a slow rolling constitutional disaster that is still reshaping law around pregnancy and pregnancy loss |
| 1:13.5 | around surrogacy and IVF, access to contraception, the future of marriage equality, and the limits |
| 1:20.1 | of free speech. So in a year that included a lot, the loss of Roe v. Wade was really a lot. Later on, in the show, Slate Plus members will have |
| 1:31.3 | access to my conversation with Mark Joseph Stern. Join us for our annual roundup of the worst |
| 1:38.8 | of jurisprudence in this past year, out of control of federal judges, state attacks on LGBTQ kids and their parents, |
| 1:46.6 | and how politicized reactions to the COVID pandemic continue to warp reason and records. |
| 1:53.3 | If you are not a Slate Plus member, but you'd like to gain access to not just my bonus |
| 1:59.6 | conversations with Mark, but to extra content from, say, |
| 2:03.0 | the political gab fest or slowburn. |
| 2:05.3 | And you think you might enjoy ad-free versions of all of Slate shows or unlimited articles |
| 2:11.3 | on Slate.com or never hitting a paywall. |
| 2:15.0 | Well, if all that sounds appealing, head on over to slate.com slash |
| 2:18.9 | amicus plus for details on how to become a Slate Plus member. And from the bottom of my heart, |
| 2:25.6 | to our members, thank you so much. Your support is what makes our journalism and this podcast |
... |
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