Buy Mary Ziegler’s Personhood here!
If you’re a regular reader, you know I quote Mary Ziegler a lot—and for good reason. She’s the country’s leading expert on fetal personhood: the anti-abortion claim that embryos, fetuses, and even fertilized eggs are Constitutionally-protected people.
Since Roe fell, fetal personhood has been everywhere: Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children”? That’s fetal personhood. So is the push to force women to bury or cremate their miscarriages—and the growing number of women arrested for miscarriages. Even so-called pro-woman bills—like requiring child support to begin at conception—are part of the same strategy.
The broad goal? Make sure women’s legal rights come second to those of their pregnancies. That’s why the White House is quietly slipping fetal personhood language into everything from the repeal of emergency abortion guidance to anti-trans executive orders.
This is the strategy underpinning everything Republicans do on abortion.
Which is why I was so thrilled Mary joined us to talk about the conservative campaign to codify fetal rights, how it ties to criminalization, and—most importantly—her new book, Personhood: The New Civil War over Reproduction.
I think you’ll learn a lot from our chat—I know I did. So tune in, and then go buy Personhood here. You can also check out the audiobook, and follow Mary on Twitter and Bluesky.
Thanks to everyone who showed up live with such great questions, and to Mary for taking the time to chat with us!
