Life and Death in Post-Roe America
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Reproductive rights are central to Democratic hopes in 2024, and that makes sense. The U.S. has experienced few judicial earthquakes as momentous as the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs vs Jackson Women's Health Organization, which effectively removed a nearly half-century of federal protection for most abortion procedures. The ruling, as intended, has thrown the question back to legislators, and in this first presidential election since the overturning of Roe v Wade, the stakes have suddenly become starkly clear for many voters.
So how do things look in the two years since Dobbs? It would be logical to believe the impacts would vary widely, with some states immediately criminalizing the termination of pregnancies and others rushing to add protections. And, indeed, that has happened. But the effects are more widespread than you might think, as the rapid change in the legal landscape has left women and men all over the country, not to mention doctors and health care companies, struggling to adapt.
While politicians jockey over legislation, researchers and reporters are gathering data, trying to understand how the change has impacted everyday lives. One of the first book-length assessments comes from journalist Shefali Luthra , who's gathered her findings in Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America .
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Shefali has covered national health policy for the past decade for outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and most recently The 19th .?Her coverage of abortion rights has been cited in Congressional testimony and Supreme Court briefings and in 2023 received an Online Journalism Award . Among her other observations, Shefali notes that even women in states that protect abortion have been impacted by the new reality, as under-resourced clinics are overwhelmed by out-of-state visitors seeking reproductive care.
Hear Shefali describe America's new reproductive reality:
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