Join the Lehman Center for American History and the Rare Book & Manuscript Library for an online talk by Mary Ziegler (Florida State University) on her new book, Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present. 

Event date: Wednesday, February 24th, 2021
Event time: 4:00 – 5:30 pm EST

Register for this Online Event

With the Supreme Court likely to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision, American debate appears fixated on clashing rights. The first comprehensive legal history of a vital period, Abortion and the Law in America illuminates an entirely different and unexpected shift in the terms of debate. Rather than simply championing rights, those on opposing sides battled about the policy costs and benefits of abortion and laws restricting it. This mostly unknown turn deepened polarization in ways many have missed. Never abandoning their constitutional demands, pro-choice and pro-life advocates both reflected and deepened the collapse of consensus about the difference between fact and ideology, science and spin. A gripping account of social-movement divides and crucial legal strategies, this book delivers a definitive recent history of an issue that transforms American law and politics to this day.