January 22 is the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, the case which legalized abortion throughout the USA in 1973—until the Roe decision was reversed last June by the Court. The Local and Global Discussion Group of the COA will review recent key decisions about reproductive rights at its next meeting to be held on February 9, 1:15-3pm.

Instead of a complicated political and personal debate about the changes in the past 50 years affecting reproductive rights—a debate we see and hear daily in the media and the dinner table—we will focus our analysis instead on the Courts’ opinions and dissents on both sides of that debate.

Weston resident Nick Danforth, an international family planning consultant and former director of the James Madison Institute (the foundation which took Roe from Texas to the Supreme Court) will lead our discussion. Nick hired and supported the late Texas attorney Sarah Weddington (with key help from another Weston resident) in preparing and arguing Roe. At 26, Sarah became the youngest woman ever to win a US Supreme Court case.

Nick will lead our open discussion by sharing excerpts from key Supreme Court cases on reproductive rights since the mid-1960s. All interested in a civil discussion of these issues are welcome to attend in person or via Zoom. All participants’ views matter, particularly because policies affecting these fundamental human rights will require communication and compromise in every American state, where future restrictions on reproductive health services will need to be agree upon in future. For more information or a Zoom link, please call the COA at 781-786-6280.