the Fall of Roe: America, Abortion and Fight for Power

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. In June 2022, Americans watched in shock as the Supreme Court reversed one of the nation's landmark rulings. For nearly a half century, Roe was synonymous with women's rights and freedoms. Then, suddenly, it was gone.In their groundbreaking book The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer reveal the explosive inside story of how it happened. Their investigation charts the shocking political and religious campaign to take down abortion rights and remake American families, womanhood, and the nation itself.Reeling from Barack Obama's 2012 landslide presidential victory - and motivated by a spiritual mission - a small but determined network of elite conservative Christian lawyers and powerbrokers worked quietly and methodically to keep their true cause alive: ending abortion rights. They devised a strategic, top-down takeover at every level of political and legal life. Broad swaths of liberal America did not register the severity of the threat until it was far too late. At a moment when women had more power than ever before, the feminist movement suffered one of the greatest political defeats in American history.With stunning scope, journalistic rigour, and unprecedented access to the highest echelons of conservative and liberal power, Dias and Lerer chronicle the end of the Roe era. Their reporting stretches from inside abortion clinics to the halls of the White House, exposing powerful behind-the-scenes actors and recasting the actions of those already in the spotlight. The result is a sweeping and intimate narrative of secrets, power, jaw-dropping revelations, and a beacon to guide us forward. 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 a 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.