Overview

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.  

Full Product Details

Author:   Katrina Kimport ,  Barbara A. Alvarez ,  Whitney Arey ,  Danielle Bessett
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
Imprint:   Rutgers University Press
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781978841932

ISBN 10:   1978841930
Pages:   214
Publication Date:   11 November 2025
Recommended Age:   From 18 to 99 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

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  

Reviews

""When Roe Fell is a superb collection of pieces by leading scholars of abortion. The book makes a powerful argument that simply restoring Roe v. Wade would be an insufficient response to meeting the challenge of establishing true reproductive freedom in the United States.""--Carole Joffe ""coauthor of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion"" (6/6/2025 12:00:00 AM)

Author Information

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). 

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