Pro-Life. Pro-Choice. Post-Roe? New Prospects for the Abortion Debate in America

Views on abortion rights in the U.S. have remained almost unchanged, while the politics of abortion have grown more polarized and partisan. Is there a way forward? Will new events force a change in the debate? While the Supreme Court’s conservative composition could overturn Roe v. Wade, President-elect Joe Biden, a Catholic, is vowing to protect abortion rights.

Join us for a panel featuring experts and faith-based voices who bring new perspectives on the legal, political, and social dynamics of today’s increasingly intense argument over abortion rights—and the chances of a fundamental change in that debate.

Panelists

Tricia Bruce is a sociologist of religion and an affiliate of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society. Last summer, she published a study titled, “How Americans Understand Abortion,” the largest in-depth, interview study of American attitudes on abortion.

Mary Ziegler, a professor of law at Florida State University, is one of the foremost authorities on the legal history of the American abortion debate. Her most recent book, Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2020), traces the legal history of the abortion debate from the recognition of a right to choose to “the likely undoing of Roe today.”

Gloria Purvis is a Catholic radio host and popular media commentator. She served on the National Black Catholic Congress’s Leadership Commission on Social Justice and describes herself as “dedicated to promoting the sanctity of human life, marriage, and the dignity of the human person.”

Katelyn Beaty is a former managing editor of Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical magazine, and an author and journalist who has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. She is an acquisitions editor for Brazos Press and is writing a book about celebrity in the church.

David Gibson, director of Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture, will moderate the discussion, including questions from the online audience.