A conservative author and National Review senior editor spoke about abortion to a crowd of about 70 in the Marvin Center Tuesday night.

Ramesh Ponnuru addresses the history, constitutional foundations and public opinion regarding Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 United States Supreme Court decision that declared most anti-abortion laws unconstitutional.

The student organization Colonials for Life invited Ponnuru to campus. For the last few months, the author has been promoting his new book, “Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life.”

Ponnuru’s discussion attacked the legitimacy of many of the Constitutional arguments in favor of the Roe v. Wade decision and said polling questions on the subject of abortion have shown that Americans are in favor of restricting the practice.

Although almost two-thirds of the population supports the decision, he said “several polls have shown that when presented with the options of keeping abortion legal, prohibiting it or prohibiting it with exceptions when pregnancies result from rape or incest or endanger the mother’s life, majorities of the public choose the two prohibitionist alternatives.”

Ponnuru also addressed what might happen if Roe were overturned.

“The end of Roe would not hand pro-lifers victory in all the political debates over abortion policy,” he said. “It would give them the right to have those debates in the first place. The result might be a surprising return to political moderation.”

Ponnuru said in an interview that he enjoyed visiting campuses around the country and discussing his views on abortion. “Students are not only the most earnest and engaged, but no one who has challenged [my views] has been less than respectful,” he said.