1/13/03--With January marking the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion in all 50 states, Boston College Law School will host "A Thirty Year Reflection," a national symposium to examine the impact of abortion on women. The symposium, to be held on January 25 at the Boston College Law School campus in Newton, Mass., will examine how legalized abortion has affected women medically, physically, psychologically, and economically over the past 30 years.

"In December, Zogby International reported from its public opinion survey that 22% fewer Americans favor abortion today than they did a decade ago," said Conference Organizer Marianne Luthin. "Other polls also suggest that support for Roe v. Wade is slipping. These polls all point to the greatest public policy question of the last three decades: ‘Does abortion have a negative personal impact on women?’ With 30 years experience in America, we feel that it is now a question that can be answered."

Featuring Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Eleonor Professor of the Humanities at Emory University, and Dr. Elizabeth Shadigian of the University of Michigan School of Medicine, the symposium will elicit the perspectives of eight nationally renowned women experts in the fields of law, medicine, history, sociology and psychiatry who will also address the question, "Why does abortion still divide American women so deeply?"

Panelists will also include E. Joanne Angelo, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, Paige Comstock Cunningham, Esq, of the Center of Bioethics and Human Dignity, Angela Lanfranchi, MD, F.A.C.S, co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, and Elizabeth Schiltz, associate professor of law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

Sponsored by the Women’s Fund of Americans United for Life, Feminists for Life, Women Affirming Life, and Boston College Law School, the event will run from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. on January 25 in East Wing building room 115 of BC Law School, 885 Centre Street in Newton, Mass. Pre-registration is required, and is available online at unitedforlife.org.

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January 22 will mark the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade that set aside a patchwork of state laws and made abortion legal across the country. The 7-2 Supreme Court ruling stated that abortion was a "private matter" and that privacy was a constitutionally protected right. Since the Supreme Court decision, more than 40 million abortions have been performed in the United States.