Forty years after the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, “abortion” is still a word that is said with either outright hostility or vague discomfort by many, this despite the fact that one in three American women will have terminated at least one pregnancy by the time they reach menopause. Even those who support a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy often qualify their support by saying abortion is a “bad thing,” an “agonizing decision,” thereby turning an act that is often necessary, and often welcomed, into something shameful and secretive. In her groundbreaking book, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, Katha Pollitt has reframed abortion as a common part of a woman’s reproductive life, one that should be accepted as a moral right with positive social implications.

On Wednesday November, 5 at 7pm EST, tune in for a livestreamed discussion between Pollitt andMSNBC National Reporter Irin Carmon, hosted by Terri Gordon, Director of the Gender Studies Program at The New School. This event is sponsored by Picador and The Nation Institute, the Gender Studies Program at The New School and the Gender and Sexuality Studies at The New School for Public Engagement. Read this exclusive excerpt from Pollitt’s book for more.