The Fall of Roe by Elizabeth Dias
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I remember the day when Roe fell. I had sensed that Roe was under threat for years, my fears for Roe even being reflected in my novel, yet on the day that the Supreme Court of the United States overturned their decision that protected women’s reproductive rights, the sense of unbelief and horror that I felt was profound, even though the decision would have no immediate or direct effect on me. How could it? After all, I am a woman living in England, where access to healthcare – all forms of healthcare – is free at point of service, and I am also past the years where I am likely to need any form of reproductive healthcare.
Yet it felt like an attack on women everywhere, the decision enabling lawmakers to enact what they call pro-life laws that effectively mandate women to carry pregnancies to term, even when they are unwanted or even unviable pregnancies, and worse, even when the life of the woman may be at significant risk.
I bought this book because I wanted to understand how it had come to this. The decision to overturn Roe did not and will not directly impact on my life, yet as a woman, it is still personal, and the ripples of the overturning of Roe reverberate throughout the world. I needed to try and make sense of American politics, and how this issue came to be such a prominent one within the social and political discourse of a nation which prides itself on foundational principles of liberty and equality.
In The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer set out, in a non-partisan and manner, the trajectory of a movement determined to undo Roe. The narrative is compelling, the machinations of a movement convinced they were doing God’s work set out in a devastatingly concise manner. The authors are almost forensic in their approach, somewhat appropriate given the book is effectively a coroner’s report of their autopsy on Roe. Sheer determination, manipulation, chance, and luck. Those are the elements that are explored as the authors try to unravel the series of events that led to the overturning of the Supreme Court decision that had protected women’s bodily autonomy for decades.
It is an utterly brilliant account. It was also infuriating and upsetting. For me, more than anything else, it shows women everywhere what their worth is in a patriarchal society. It doesn’t matter what your views may be on the issue of abortion. The real question is whether any woman should have the state dictating what she does with her own body. Whether the state should have the absolute power to mandate that a woman should bring a pregnancy to term at the expense of her own life, her own happiness, or her own right to self-determination and agency.
As we survey our world in what feels like a new Handmaid’s Tale dystopia, this book stands as a testament to how this happened. It is one to read and reflect on as America takes the next steps forward in a world without Roe.
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Deborah Siddoway 