Under the Knife and the Cross

A Wave of Catholic Hospital Mergers Is Curtailing Medical Services, Especially for Women Susan Jacoby is a freelance writer and former reporter for the Washington Post. A fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library, she is working on…

The Bad Old Days

By Polly Rothstein In Connecticut, where I grew up, birth control was illegal. Feminists had lobbied to repeal the law for decades, but lawmakers refused. I wondered how women-in-the-know avoided pregnancy. Some men used condoms (where did they get them?), but many women had shotgun…

D&E Abortions and Partial Truth

by Polly Rothstein Abortion rights have been clobbered by a ruse of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Christian Coalition. Departing from their usual attacks on legal abortion and support for restrictions on access, they have attacked a method of abortion, dilation and…

Legal Abortion: Arguments Pro & Con

This piece was written almost 30 years ago and should be considered to be a historical document. However, instead, most points are still relevant today. Anti-Choice (RTL) Pro-choice Human life begins at conception. Therefore, abortion is murder of a person. Personhood at conception is a…

The Conservative Case for Abortion

Edited by Estella Johnson In “The Conservative Case for Abortion” (The New Republic, August 21/28), Jerry Z. Muller discusses a third view of abortion that is neither “right to choose” nor “right-to-life” [sic]. Muller’s third position is “essentially conservative and pro-family,” yet favors abortion as…