Cynthia Gorney: Parsing The Politics Of Abortion

Efforts to end or limit abortion rights are on ballots in three states. So how has the issue of abortion played out in the current election cycle?

Former Washington Post reporter Cynthia Gorney has covered the political and cultural battle over abortion for more than 20 years. In an interview with Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies, she helps us parse the politics of abortion in a year where a life-begins-at-conception ballot measure is up for a vote in Colorado — and a staunchly anti-abortion vice-presidential candidate has galvanized the Republican Party's conservative base.

Gorney, now a journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a contributing writer for The New York Times, is a past recipient of a American Society of Newspaper Editors feature-writing award. She's also the author of the book Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars.