This episode examines how Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and the Taney Court would have approached Roe v. Wade, arguing that under Taney's constitutional framework abortion would be a state criminal and medical matter, not a federal rights issue.

It explains Taney's commitment to strict federalism, his narrow view of liberty that excluded bodily autonomy and women's individual constitutional status, and why Roe's reasoning would collapse for structural and jurisdictional reasons in that era.