With the election coming up, a legal historian provides insight on abortion access in the U.S.
By LAILA AZHAR — features@theaggie.org
When Professor Mary Ziegler speaks, she speaks with precision. Widely referred to as an expert on the law as it relates to abortion and reproductive rights, she details legal facts and history off the top of her head, with her voice never losing its sharp clarity.
Ziegler, who teaches at the UC Davis School of Law, uses her knowledge as a legal historian to elucidate abortion-related issues. She has consulted with governors and members of Congress, submitted Amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) briefs and spoken to a dizzying amount of reporters — more than one a day, on average, and on some days as many as 12.
Her keen insights are likely a predominant reason as to why she’s such a coveted voice. But as she describes it, she’s in the unique position of understanding the decades-long story of how we ended up in the current state of abortion access — a story that isn’t often told.
“Historical questions wind up having a lot of present-day significance,” Ziegler said. “There are tons of people who do amazing work in this space, but a lot of it wasn’t about the history, particularly. So when people are trying to make sense of what’s happening now and why it’s happening, or where certain things began or came from, I wind up having to help with a lot of that.”
It is precisely this gap in research that first got her involved in this line of work. As a second-year law student attending Harvard Law School, she took a course in legal history. Many of the books she read for this class were about the question of whether the law can be used to change society, and if so — how.
“History is very helpful for addressing that,” Ziegler said. “You can’t know that in the abstract. You have to look at past examples that have worked or failed.”
She expected to read about Roe v. Wade in this class. Judicial decisions and media discussion constantly referred to the case as a cautionary tale about backlash and the limits of courts. Yet, the case never came up.
Ziegler asked her professor about the case’s exclusion during office hours. His answer was simple — there weren’t any books that fit the criteria. The scholarship on Roe focused primarily on what led to the case, not what came after.
Filled with curiosity, she turned to the library archives, sifting through historical newspapers to find the answers she was looking for. Her research turned into discoveries, which turned into writing, which turned into publications.
Today, Ziegler has written several books on abortion: “After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate,” published in 2015, details the cultural and political responses to the landmark case; “Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment,” published in 2022, details the intersection of the pro-life movement and changes in campaign spending policy.
Her upcoming book, “Personhood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction,” set to be published in April 2025, discusses how the end goal for the anti-abortion movement was never the fall of Roe; Rather, the goal has always been to have an established fetal personhood amendment.
Fetal personhood laws — which would grant fetuses and embryos the same legal rights as a person — have sprung up in the public consciousness and media discussion in recent years, notably this February when the Alabama Supreme Court held that under state law, embryos are children.
“The book helps make sense of what’s really behind that, and where it’s going next,” Ziegler said. “If you think of the last 50 years as being about the fall of Roe v. Wade, I think the next 50 years, for Conservatives, are going to be about fetal personhood.”
The future of abortion access is murky. A future Trump administration, Ziegler predicts, could potentially see a rightward shift of an already far-right Supreme Court, or an executive act using the Comstock Act — an 1873 law that criminalizes the mailing of anything related to procuring abortion — to prosecute those who send or receive abortion-related materials.
In a best-case scenario, according to Ziegler, a future Harris administration could push to end the filibuster in order to advance a bill codifying abortion access. However, considering that Democrats are predicted to lose the Senate, this is unlikely to happen in the upcoming term.
More likely, Harris would serve as what Ziegler referred to as a “firewall.” The Supreme Court can restrict abortion access regardless of who is president. Ultimately, however, it is up to the Food and Drug Administration and Justice Department to enforce these restrictions. A Harris administration, Ziegler noted, likely wouldn’t emphasize enforcing stringent abortion restrictions.
As the election draws near, the issue of abortion is on the minds of UC Davis students.
“When it comes to matters such as abortion, being able to make my vote count includes being as educated as possible,” Cuahtemoc Martinez Marquez, a second-year international relations and psychology double major, said. “All voters should be educating themselves on what matters not just to them but to their own children, mothers and sisters.”
Students view reproductive rights as a factor in their decision, regardless of California’s reputation as an abortion safe haven.
“Our vote has the power to affect the lives of people across the country, including those in states where access to abortion is restricted,” Layla Abedini, a second-year biological sciences major, said. “Even though we live in California, it’s an important issue to be thinking about.”
For Ziegler, this sentiment is a crucial one for discussion, especially when in a recent case, a hospital in California turned away a patient in need of an emergency abortion because fetal cardiac activity was detected.
“[California] is not a place that affords you the ability not to care about this,” Ziegler said. “There are people you know who could be prosecuted for things depending on what happens in the election — and also, California isn’t perfect.”
The future of abortion access is unclear. But Ziegler’s understanding of the historical and legal landscape surrounding abortion and reproductive rights will continue to provide clarity on the issue. Her research serves to remind us that history is more than a record of the past — it’s a lens through which we can navigate the present.
Written by: Laila Azhar — features@theaggie.org
