Professor Ziegler Assesses GOP Debaters' Takes on Reproductive Rights

The Washington Post, The Hill and PolitiFact quoted Professor Mary Ziegler on aspects of how candidates addressed reproductive rights during the first Republican presidential primary debate on Aug. 23.

In an Aug. 24 analysis piece headlined “The GOP abortion split was on full display last night,” the Post quoted a tweet from Ziegler pointing out the “irrelevance” of questions being asked about abortion. “What about executive orders, as @AUL has called for? Or enforcement of the Comstock Act?" Ziegler asked.

Ziegler also contributed to an Aug. 24 FactCheck.org analysis of the debate that debunked claims from several candidates. In an Aug. 25 Hill article,  Ziegler discussed the debate in relation to efforts within the GOP to coalesce around a call for a 15-week abortion ban.

Mary Ziegler is an expert on the law, history, and politics of reproduction, health care, and conservatism in the United States from 1945 to the present. She is one of the world’s leading historians of the U.S. abortion debate.