Christine Durham examines abortion and a nation without Roe v. Wade | Episode 212

Mormon Land

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments about a Mississippi law banning virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Anti-abortion activists are cheering the possibility that the court could overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which granted women a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has aligned itself on several social issues with conservative religions, but its position on abortion is more complicated than that. The Utah-based faith condemns “elective abortion for personal or social convenience” but permits the procedure in cases of rape or incest, severe fetal defects, or when the life or health of the mother is in “serious jeopardy.” On this week’s show, Christine Durham, a former justice and chief justice of Utah’s Supreme Court and herself a Latter-day Saint, discusses the possible monumental shift in abortion policy and practices, and how the high court’s decision may impact the nation, states, Utah’s most dominant faith, its members and women overall — warning that women cannot truly be equal without control of their own bodies.