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April 26, 2006
Eyal Press on ALOUD on The Off-Ramp
Through a special collaboration with 89.3 KPCC, ALOUD on the Off-Ramp extends the insightful discussions of ALOUD at Central Library to allow both audience members and listeners the unique opportunity to engage each other in an informal exchange of ideas beyond the live lecture and performance series held regularly at the Downtown Central Library.
ALOUD on the Off-Ramp will present thought-provoking questions posed by participating guests from the award-winning series. 89.3 KPCC and ALOUD at Central Library invite you to join in and respond by voicing your own opinions and viewpoints.
Presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, in association with the Los Angeles Public Library, ALOUD at Central Library presents over 75 live events a year and provides a public forum for discussion and ideas from some of today’s brightest writers, thinkers, and innovators.
On Wednesday, April 26, award-winning journalist Eyal Press sat down with writer and host Patt Morrison to discuss the economic and social roots of America’s most volatile conflict: the war over abortion. Press, a regular contributor to The Nation, recently published a book, Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City, and the Conflict that Divided America, based on his own family’s experience on the front lines. During the course of the evening, he and Morrison engaged in a compelling discussion of the 1998 threat against the life of Press’ abortion provider father, and the driving passions and beliefs at odds from both sides of the embattled issue. After the program, Eyal Press posed the following question for ALOUD on the Off Ramp:
Is there any room for common ground in the abortion debate, or is it destined to be polarized in light of the deeply-held (or might it be better to say "absolute"?) convictions on both sides?
Click on the comment link below to send us your feedback.
Posted by ALOUD at 5:20 PM
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I'm not sure there's common ground on abortion, but there may be middle ground. The extremists on both sides don't have to sign on to any compromise. The question that intrigues me is whether the formula in Roe V. Wade, if it were legislated in states rather than common law, might not have been a successful middle ground. I suspect most of the anger around this issue comes not from a policy allowing women and their doctors to make that choice but from the disrespect for people's values that rigidity, the result of Supreme Court rulings, has brought to the debate.
Posted by: Doug on April 27, 2006 2:12 PM
