The Fall of Roe

Women today are more equal than at any other time in American history. The #MeToo movement has transformed American workplaces. Christian power is weakening as the US grows increasingly secular. Democrats currently control Washington. And yet, in this moment of growing equality and diminishing religiosity, women have lost one of the cornerstone achievements of liberal politics: the right to access an abortion.

It's easy to characterise abortion politics as a familiar, decades-long battle—evangelicals against feminists, Republican states versus Democratic states, grassroots fighting elites. That kind of political thinking misunderstands the current moment. Abortion is, of course, about the right to terminate a pregnancy. But it's also the stage where the United States works through some of its most fundamental cultural and moral debates.

In The Fall of Roe, two top New York Times journalists, Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer, have written the definitive book on the end of Roe, revealing how the strategic battle over the most contentious topic in politics helps us understand the battle for control over America. The Fall of Roe looks at the playbook for how the religious right came to dominate American politics, a strategy that has vaulted anti-abortion activists into central roles in the conservative movement. And unless Democrats shift their strategy, it is those activists who will be the power brokers who determine the future of America. Furthermore, given that these debates and strategies have influence here and throughout the world, The Fall of Roe will be essential not only for understanding America but also informing our own future.