Project: Dialogue
with Dr. Bertha Manninen
Sunday, October 9
11:30am | Rehearsal Hall

Pro Life or Pro Choice, Can We Meet in the Middle?
In this talk, Bertha Alvarez Manninen will defend a pro-choice stance, but with some pro-life sympathies. She will first go over the recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade. She will then argue in favor of a pro-choice perspective given considerations of bodily autonomy. Some politicians have argued in favor of a federal personhood amendment, which would denote embryos and fetuses as persons from conception. Manninen will go over what personhood amendments are, and what are the consequences for passing it that extends beyond abortion. Finally, Manninen will argue that fetal life does indeed have value, and that it may be possible for pro-choice and pro-life advocates to come together to help build a society where abortions are less common.