This month marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In her cover story for Time Magazine, staff writer Kate Pickert explains why she believes the abortion-rights cause is in crisis, and the pro-life movement is winning the fight over abortion rights.

The notion of the ten year budget and fiscal cycle is actually a rather common one -- but why? It takes ten years, apparently, to shoot for big overhauls in the budget. Tax structures get a hard look and potential revision every ten years, even those pesky Bush tax cuts that are up for renewal have a ten year expiration date. But why ten?  Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and its co-producer WNYC says, it's a pretty arbitrary time frame.

For many in the New York and New Jersey area, this week's winter storm comes as their recovery from super storm Sandy is still underway.  That slow path to recovery for Sandy victims is particularly daunting for local business owners contending with how to keep their doors open. As winter sets in and 2012 comes to a close, a handful of business owners in and around Red Hook and nearby Sunset Park in Brooklyn share their stories about how they're trying to rebound two months after the storm.

This Christmas, less than two weeks after the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, we look at what it means to grieve during the holiday season with Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones, priest for pastoral and community care at at Trinity Wall Street Church in New York City.

The question over how and why we give gifts is central to the holiday season. What do we really value about gift giving and receiving? Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, says there are ways of measuring the value of gift giving and getting. DT Strain, a humanist minister and writer of The Houston Chronicle's The Spiritual Naturalist blog, calls for a moratorium on giving presents, asking that gifts come in the form of charity and time.

Recent guests, including actors Ed Burns and Brian Cox and singers Olivia Newton John and Darryl McDaniels, tell us about the gifts that have meant the most to them.

As The Takeaway explores stories of gift giving and gift receiving all this hour, a rare act of generosity changed Beth Gonzalez’s perspective on the notion of presents. Beth tells the story of her three-year-old son Lucas who was born with a rare genetic immune disorder, and how donations from all over the world saved his life.

Actor Brian Cox says today's conversations surrounding debt and fiscal policy help him get into character for his portrayal of the Dickensian Scrooge. Cox will be playing Ebenezer Scrooge in a radio drama of the Christmas Carol tonight.

Labor activists in Michigan could face a historic defeat this week against a "right-to-work" bill that lawmakers have reconvened over today, and which Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has pledged to sign. United Auto Workers president Bob King discusses what this means for the nation's future with labor.

The US Labor Department releases its monthly employment numbers this morning. With every job lost or gained, there’s at least one economist wagging his or her finger about how the value of a college education is more and more important in today's tough job market. But Sharon Virts Mozer, the CEO of FCi Federal who has created over 1,000 jobs, believes that most employers overestimate the power of a four year degree.

A middle class is emerging in Latin America, but does more opportunity exist in the United States for Latinos? Or less? Eileen Diaz-McConnell, an associate professor at Arizona State University, specializes in Latino demographics, particularly on homeownership rates, a central part of any American dream definition.

Hurricane Sandy affected millions of people on the East Coast, hitting New York and New Jersey especially hard. The storm hit home for us here at The Takeaway. Our senior producer, Jen Poyant, lives in Arverne, Queens near the Rockaways, one of the hardest hit parts of New York City.

David Goodman, a reporter for our partner The New York Times, explains what happened at a hospital in New York after it lost primary and backup power.

After Ann Coulter tweeted, “I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard," Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens published “An Open Letter to Ann Coulter."  In his letter, he pleads with Coulter to reconsider her usage of the R-word and its negative connotations. He writes that Coulter “assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult."

C.J. Chivers, correspondent for our partner The New York Times, has just returned from a reporting trip in Syria. He followed a group of Syrian rebels and the development of military tactics, including the booby trapping of ammunition, while he was there.

The death toll from a fungal meningitis outbreak continues to climb across the country, and at least 15 people have died. It all started at a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. How are those pharmacies regulated?

Hermene Hartman was an enthusiastic supporter of President Obama in 2008. Earlier this month we spoke with Ms. Hartman about how she thinks there has been "disappointment in Barack Obama as an African American" and that "there’s been no focus and deliberation with the black community." Her comments elicited a widespread backlash.

Sometimes we’re madly in love with our candidates, but sometimes that love fades. That's been the case for Hermene Hartman, an Obama supporter from Chicago.

Actress Olivia Wilde talks about growing up with parents who worked as journalists in conflict zones and how that inspired her role in the new PBS series, "Half the Sky."

There are 165 schools in the United States that are so rigorous and desired that you have to pass an exam to get in. Is this a model that could eventually trickle down to all sorts of schools?