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More Perfect

Part 2: If Not Viability, Then What?

35 min episode · 2 min read
·
Mary Browning,Shelly Sella

Episode

35 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Software Development, Product & Tech Trends, Crypto & Web3

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Personhood Movement Strategy: Anti-abortion advocates argue life begins at conception using IVF technology as evidence that embryos in petri dishes are viable, pushing constitutional rights from conception to ban all abortions through amicus briefs.
  • Tort Law Framework: Legal scholars Jill Lenz and Greer Donnelly propose using personal injury law principles where pregnant people define their own fetal value to courts based on individual circumstances, rather than government-imposed gestational timelines determining abortion access.
  • Provider Perspective Shift: Doctor Shelly Sella, one of four U.S. providers offering third-trimester abortions, asks patients how they describe their pregnancy and adopts their language, acknowledging emotional complexity while maintaining abortion rights without denying the reality of the work.
  • Parental Rights Approach: Framing abortion as a parental decision-making right allows recognition of fetal value without granting constitutional personhood, similar to how parents make medical decisions for children after birth, potentially protecting abortion access while acknowledging pregnancy loss grief.

What It Covers

Legal scholars propose alternatives to Roe's viability line after Dobbs decision, exploring how abortion law could center pregnant people's experiences rather than fixed gestational timelines, drawing from personal pregnancy loss stories.

Key Questions Answered

  • Personhood Movement Strategy: Anti-abortion advocates argue life begins at conception using IVF technology as evidence that embryos in petri dishes are viable, pushing constitutional rights from conception to ban all abortions through amicus briefs.
  • Tort Law Framework: Legal scholars Jill Lenz and Greer Donnelly propose using personal injury law principles where pregnant people define their own fetal value to courts based on individual circumstances, rather than government-imposed gestational timelines determining abortion access.
  • Provider Perspective Shift: Doctor Shelly Sella, one of four U.S. providers offering third-trimester abortions, asks patients how they describe their pregnancy and adopts their language, acknowledging emotional complexity while maintaining abortion rights without denying the reality of the work.
  • Parental Rights Approach: Framing abortion as a parental decision-making right allows recognition of fetal value without granting constitutional personhood, similar to how parents make medical decisions for children after birth, potentially protecting abortion access while acknowledging pregnancy loss grief.

Notable Moment

An abortion provider who performed third-trimester procedures kept patient notebooks where entries ranged from seeking forgiveness to expressing no regrets, revealing the complex emotional spectrum that defies simple pro-choice or anti-abortion narratives about the experience.

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Episode Transcript

How many times have you wished you could be in two places at once? With Wix, you practically can. Wix's website builder is packed with powerful AI tools to make running your business online easier. Build a full site just by talking with AI, Get an AI agent to manage your sales and marketing, or work like a 10 person team even if it's just you. So you don't need superpowers to get everything done. You just need Wix. Try it now for free at wix.com. Out with the old, in with the new, all under budget at Gardner White's Clearance Center. Right now, save 50% or more every day with deep discounts on overstocks and one of a kinds that make it easy to refresh, restyle, and reorganize without having to reinvent your budget. Big comfort, small prices, and zero stress with free same day delivery. Save 50% or more every day at the Gardner White Clearance Center. Listener supported. WNYC Studios. A heads up, this episode has stories of abortion and pregnancy loss. I'm Julia Longoria. This is More Perfect. I don't have any particular pride in the original Roe v Wade decision. I mean, I never really thought about the viability of viability. Last week, we heard from a judge and a clerk, two of the men who, fifty years ago, tried to answer the question of abortion in America. I just thought you you can't abolish her right, but you can limit it. And they settled on a compromise, one that was flawed from the start, the viability line. Now, the Supreme Court has thrown out that line, And lawmakers across the country are scrambling to write new lines, new rules for when it's legal to get an abortion or if it's legal at all. Today on More Perfect, chapter two of our two part series. What if abortion law wasn't shaped by men at the Supreme Court? What if it was written by people who know what it's like to be pregnant? I I don't think people see me as a person that would have had an abortion. I resent anybody else trying to define what happened to me. I think I always go back to we have to look at what drives someone to have an abortion, and why is that person at twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight weeks desperate to have an abortion? What are the circumstances? That's the key. We may change the disbarred court. Stories of women who fought battles within their own bodies and who now find themselves on the front lines of the next legal battle over abortion in America. Say what you want about AI, but it's here, and it's helping businesses get more done in a day. Wix's website builder is infused with AI so you can stay ahead. Create a beautiful, functional website just by describing your idea, track how your site appears in AI search results, create custom images on demand, or launch an …

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