The political/culture wars are once again at full throttle as Georgia becomes the latest in a series of states to enact serious abortion restrictions, in this case a ban on the procedure when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Is the longstanding legal/cultural consensus (or political standoff) about abortion—that it should be legally available during the first trimester—giving way to a more extreme agenda by polarized advocates on each side? That’s the thorny question underlying this week’s Editors’ Roundtable edition of the Reason Podcast, featuring Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman and Matt Welch.
Other items up for discussion include our latest “constitutional crisis,” the most recent installment of that television show, and also this tweet:
In The Divine Comedy, Dante reserved a special place in the Seventh Circle of Hell for people who charged usurious interest rates. Today we don’t need the hellfire, but we do need a national usury law that caps interest rates on credit cards and consumer loans at 15 percent. pic.twitter.com/i4vnZOwFB2
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 13, 2019
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Audio production by Ian Keyser.
Relevant links from the show:
“‘Heartbeat Bills’ Banning Almost All Abortions Are Back,” by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
“Let Midwives and Nurse Practitioners Provide First-Trimester Abortions, Says Federal Court,” by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
“The Abortion Divide Shows a Fight Growing Ever More Bitter,” by Glenn Garvin
“‘Record Low Are ‘Pro-choice,’ Yet 75 Percent Support Abortion Rights,” by Nick Gillespie
“Abortion & Libertarianism: Nick Gillespie, Ronald Bailey, Mollie Hemingway, and Katherine Mangu-Ward,” by Nick Gillespie and Joshua Swain
“Debate: Libertarians Should Support Abortion Rights,” by Tibor Machan and Karl Pflock
“Wishing for a Constitutional Crisis,” by Keith Whittington
“The Real Constitutional Crisis Is Congress’ Unwillingness to Do Its Job,” by Matt Welch
“Forget Robert Mueller. Trump’s Attacks On Syria Are a Reminder We’re Already in a Constitutional Crisis,” by Peter Suderman
“Firing the FBI Director Is Not a ‘Constitutional Crisis,’” by Jacob Sullum
“Bernie Sanders’ New Plan Will Make It Tougher for Poor People To Get Credit Cards,” by Peter Suderman
“Three Cheers for Usury,” by Katherine Mangu-Ward
“Payday of Reckoning,” by Katherine Mangu-Ward
“In Defense of Payday Loans,” by Nick Gillespie and Jim Epstein
“On Game of Thrones, Absolute Power Corrupts Daenerys Targaryen Absolutely,” by Robby Soave
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