Episode 6.10: Fetal Personhood, Bodily Autonomy and the Roe Not Taken

Interviewer: MATTHEW ROTH. Since it was overturned in 2022, Roe v. Wade has continued to represent to many what the restoration of abortion rights would look like. As philosopher BERTHA ALVAREZ MANNINEN has long pointed out, however, Roe itself was vulnerable to challenges from the fetal personhood movement. Two years before Roe, on the other hand, an essay by Judith Jarvis Thomson presented a defense of abortion robust enough to withstand the claims of fetal personhood in an essay that is both famous and strangely ignored in the legal wranglings over abortion. In her discussion with historian Matthew Roth, Manninen describes the strengths and potential weaknesses of Thomson's argument, how it differs from the conceptual underpinnings of Roe, and why we should treat both fetal personhood and bodily autonomy seriously in the post-Dobbs (and now Trump 2.0) world. Manninen is the author of numerous articles and books, including Civil Dialogue on Abortion, co-authored with pro-life philosopher Jack Mulder, Jr.