A Debate Over What Roe Did — and What Losing It Would Mean
About this episode
Continuing 'The Rising Right' series, Klein debates Erika Bachiochi, the socially conservative legal scholar and author of 'The Rights of Women,' who argues abortion rights have 'stalled' the gender revolution rather than advancing it. Bachiochi contends that Roe let society off the hook: instead of restructuring work and family life around women's caregiving, the country built its sexual and economic order around abortion, harming women — especially poor ones. Klein pushes back, citing evidence that contraception access in Delaware sharply cut unintended pregnancy and abortion, and noting the typical abortion patient is a woman in her late 20s, early in pregnancy, already managing life's constraints. They spar over whether restricting abortion would discipline male behavior or simply punish women, whether paid family leave and child allowances could create common ground, and what losing Roe means for feminism — with Bachiochi predicting a growing 'abortion abolitionist' movement.