A Complicated Choice: Honest Stories In The Pro-Choice Movement w/Katey Zeh

The public debate on abortion is one of the most contentious and divisive topics of public life. The June 2022 United States Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392) ruled that, “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” overruling the Roe v. Wade decision of 1975 (https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18) and the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey decision of 1992 (https://www.oyez.org/cases/1991/91-744). While these decisions have profound impact for public policy, what is missing are the stories of real people that find themselves needing to make complicated decisions regarding their reproductive health. That kind of humanity is glaringly missing in our political discourse and relegates our legal and moralistic positions and beliefs as uninformed and even harmful when we do not consider carefully and sincerely the real lives of those who seek abortions. Regardless of your convictions on abortion, we should all agree that it truly is a complicated choice, and the way forward is for us to understand better and deeper what exactly those complications are, and how they manifest in real life.

Reverend Katey Zeh (https://kateyzeh.com) is an ordained Baptist minister and the Chief Executive Officer of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (http://www.rcrc.org/). Katey is a member of the Clergy Advocacy Board of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the co-host of the Kindreds podcast (http://kindredspodcast.com/) and the author of two books, Women Rise Up: Sacred Stories of Resistance for Today’s revolution (https://kateyzeh.com/women-rise-up/) and A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement (https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506473499/A-Complicated-Choice) the topic of tonight’s discussion.