After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, a wide array of commentators bemoaned how much more support would now be needed for women who become pregnant when abortion is no longer available, or less readily available. What that implies, of course, is that abortion is a substitute for other supportive measures for pregnant and parenting women, or even more to that point, that those other forms of support are substitutes for the perceived cure-all of abortion. My guest today calls out this implicit assumption in an essay she wrote that specifically focuses on the ways in which institutions of higher education do or do not adequately support women as women, with their distinctive reproductive capacities in view.

Angela Franks is Professor of Theology at St. John’s Seminary in Boston. She is no stranger to our own McGrath Institute for Church Life as she currently serves as a Life and Human Dignity Writing Fellow for our Church Life Journal, and she has joined me on our show before to talk about gender, bodies, and the space of responsiveness. The article that is the basis of our discussion today comes under the title “Why Does Higher Ed Throw Women Under the Bus?”, which appeared in the Church Life Journal in September 2022, not long after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the Dobbs case. 

Follow up Resources:

●      Article: “Why Does Higher Ed Throw Women Under the Bus?” by Angela Franks in the Church Life Journal

●      Podcast Episode: “Catholic Colleges and Pregnant Students, with Renée Roden” on Church Life Today

●      Podcast Episode: “Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks” on Church Life Today

●      Article: “The Body as Totem in the Asexual Revolution” by Angela Franks in the Church Life Journal

●      Video Series: “Into Life: Love Changes Everything” from the Sisters of Life and the McGrath Institute for Church Life: a 12-part original series on accompanying a woman into life.

This episode is supported by NCEA, https://www.ncea.org/NCEA2023/whyattend

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.