U.S.: Telling the story behind Roe v Wade: ‘The play illuminates choice’

As Roe, a stage production centered on the landmark abortion case of the 1970s, hits Washington DC, playwright Lisa Loomer discusses its prescience

David Smith in Washington (The Guardian)

Monday 9 January 2017 16.13 GMT

In a normal election year, without the dozens of distractions, it would have been a jaw-dropping moment. “Do you want to see the court overturn Roe v Wade?” Donald Trump was asked during the final presidential debate. His initial answer meandered but then became blunt: “That’ll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the [supreme] court.”

He went on to accuse his opponent, Hillary Clinton, of advocating that babies be ripped out of their mother’s wombs just before birth, a bogus claim she dismissed as “scare rhetoric”. But come election day, he won and she lost.

Now Trump is bound for the White House and a stage play about Roe v Wade, the 1973 case at the supreme court that firmly established a woman’s right to abortion, is arriving in Washington DC, with remarkable prescience. The first night curtain will go up just 40 hours before the bellicose billionaire is sworn in as US president.

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Source: The Guardian