When Roe Fell
How Barriers, Inequities, and Systemic Failures of Justice in Abortion Became Visible
Will be published approx. on 15. December 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
214 pages
978-1-9788-4192-5 (ISBN)
Description
In June 2022, Roe was overturned. The constitutional right to abortion was gone, and abortion was soon banned or severely restricted in states across the country. Clinics closed. Abortion seekers were turned away. It was a bombshell, dramatically altering the geographical landscape of abortion legality and availability. But it did not change everything. Even under Roe, for many in the US, abortion was a right in name only. The fall of Roe changed a great deal, but it is also noteworthy for what it did not change-and, perhaps, for what it made more visible about whom the Roe legal regime served and whom it failed.
In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of abortion scholars examines the history, politics, and practical experience of abortion leading up to the overturning of Roe, placing this judicial decision in a longer history of abortion in the US. Chapters delve into what the fall of Roe revealed about abortion seekers, abortion provision, and abortion advocacy. With diverse voices, formats, and styles, chapters include geographically specific deep dives and incisive big picture assessments. Collectively, they demystify abortion and abortion research, laying bare common misunderstandings and misinformation about the topic, and belying claims that Dobbs "changed everything." In the aftermath of the fall of Roe, this volume offers readers the opportunity to reorient scholarship and understanding about abortion, recognizing what was already true before Roe was overturned and how losing the protections of Roe forced, enabled, and perhaps even facilitated a new era of abortion. Only by understanding the historical moment when Roe fell can we anticipate what might happen next in the ongoing social and political contention over reproductive autonomy and freedom.
In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of abortion scholars examines the history, politics, and practical experience of abortion leading up to the overturning of Roe, placing this judicial decision in a longer history of abortion in the US. Chapters delve into what the fall of Roe revealed about abortion seekers, abortion provision, and abortion advocacy. With diverse voices, formats, and styles, chapters include geographically specific deep dives and incisive big picture assessments. Collectively, they demystify abortion and abortion research, laying bare common misunderstandings and misinformation about the topic, and belying claims that Dobbs "changed everything." In the aftermath of the fall of Roe, this volume offers readers the opportunity to reorient scholarship and understanding about abortion, recognizing what was already true before Roe was overturned and how losing the protections of Roe forced, enabled, and perhaps even facilitated a new era of abortion. Only by understanding the historical moment when Roe fell can we anticipate what might happen next in the ongoing social and political contention over reproductive autonomy and freedom.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Brunswick NJ
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 B-W figure
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
385 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-9788-4192-5 (9781978841925)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
KATRINA KIMPORT is Professor in the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program at University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of No Real Choice: How Culture and Politics Matter for Reproductive Autonomy (Rutgers University Press, 2022) and Queering Marriage: Challenging Family Formation in the United States (Rutgers University Press, 2014).
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction When Roe Fell: What Losing Constitutional Protection Did and Didn’t Change about Abortion in the United States
Katrina Kimport
Section I: What the Fall of Roe Revealed about People Who Have Abortions
Chapter 1 Contraception Is Not Enough
Diana Greene Foster
Chapter 2 What Dobbs Revealed about the Everyday Morality of Abortion
Whitney Arey & Klaira Lerma
Chapter 3 Abortion Restrictions: How Much Has Actually Changed
Lindsay Ruhr
Chapter 4 Counting Was All We Ever Had: Measuring Change in Abortion Care After Dobbs
Jenny O’Donnell
Chapter 5 Toward a Unified Conceptualization of Abortion Access
Jane W. Seymour & Jenny Higgins
Section II: What the Fall of Roe Revealed about Abortion Provision
Chapter 6 Shift Work: Abortion Care in an Ever-Changing Landscape
Kelly Marie Ward & Barbara A. Alvarez
Chapter 7 The Great Fallacy that American Catholic Hospitals Practice Medicine without Abortion
Lori Freedman
Chapter 8 Dobbs Reinvigorated the Potential of Mifepristone to “Change Everything”
Tracy A. Weitz
Chapter 9 “We're Living in a Really Alternative Universe Right Now”: The Limits of Physicians’ Cultural Authority Pre-Dobbs and What that Means for a Post-Dobbs World
Danielle Bessett, B. Jessie Hill, Meredith J. Pensak, & Michelle L. McGowan
Chapter 10 Physician Workforce Sensitivity and Reactions to Abortion Bans
Alexandra Woodcock & Jessica Sanders
Section III: What the Fall of Roe Revealed about Advocacy For and Against Abortion
Chapter 11 Know Your Enemy: Moving Beyond the “Expose Fake Clinics” Campaign Against Anti-Abortion, Crisis Pregnancy Centers Sara Mattheisen
Chapter 12 “This Right Here is a Baby:” White Evangelical Women in the Pro-Life
Movement
Micki Burdick
Chapter 13 Evolving, Innovating, Enduring: Behind the Scenes on Abortion Funds Continuing through a Post-Dobbs Landscape Ophra Leyser-Whalen & Erin R. Johnson
Notes on Contributors
Resources
Introduction When Roe Fell: What Losing Constitutional Protection Did and Didn’t Change about Abortion in the United States
Katrina Kimport
Section I: What the Fall of Roe Revealed about People Who Have Abortions
Chapter 1 Contraception Is Not Enough
Diana Greene Foster
Chapter 2 What Dobbs Revealed about the Everyday Morality of Abortion
Whitney Arey & Klaira Lerma
Chapter 3 Abortion Restrictions: How Much Has Actually Changed
Lindsay Ruhr
Chapter 4 Counting Was All We Ever Had: Measuring Change in Abortion Care After Dobbs
Jenny O’Donnell
Chapter 5 Toward a Unified Conceptualization of Abortion Access
Jane W. Seymour & Jenny Higgins
Section II: What the Fall of Roe Revealed about Abortion Provision
Chapter 6 Shift Work: Abortion Care in an Ever-Changing Landscape
Kelly Marie Ward & Barbara A. Alvarez
Chapter 7 The Great Fallacy that American Catholic Hospitals Practice Medicine without Abortion
Lori Freedman
Chapter 8 Dobbs Reinvigorated the Potential of Mifepristone to “Change Everything”
Tracy A. Weitz
Chapter 9 “We're Living in a Really Alternative Universe Right Now”: The Limits of Physicians’ Cultural Authority Pre-Dobbs and What that Means for a Post-Dobbs World
Danielle Bessett, B. Jessie Hill, Meredith J. Pensak, & Michelle L. McGowan
Chapter 10 Physician Workforce Sensitivity and Reactions to Abortion Bans
Alexandra Woodcock & Jessica Sanders
Section III: What the Fall of Roe Revealed about Advocacy For and Against Abortion
Chapter 11 Know Your Enemy: Moving Beyond the “Expose Fake Clinics” Campaign Against Anti-Abortion, Crisis Pregnancy Centers Sara Mattheisen
Chapter 12 “This Right Here is a Baby:” White Evangelical Women in the Pro-Life
Movement
Micki Burdick
Chapter 13 Evolving, Innovating, Enduring: Behind the Scenes on Abortion Funds Continuing through a Post-Dobbs Landscape Ophra Leyser-Whalen & Erin R. Johnson
Notes on Contributors
Resources