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The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right's Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion
In the past decade, right-wing efforts to end legal abortion in the United States have reached a fever pitch, with anti-abortion legislation being introduced in several “red”―and even some “purple”―states. This war on abortion has had a chilling effect on women’s reproductive health, making abortion accessible in name only in multiple parts of the country due to a lack of clinics, high cost, extensive waiting periods, and other issues. And if Roe v. Wade is overturned, which is now quite possible with a conservative Supreme Court, half of the states in the U.S. will likely make abortion completely illegal within their borders. The End of Roe v. Wade examines the systematic destruction of legal abortion on a state by state basis, as well as detailing the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to end access to abortion and contraception on a federal level. This timely and urgent book also offers a harrowing glimpse into what a post- Roe America will look like, previewing the next major battle over abortion rights―pitting those who chose to end their pregnancies outside of the legal medical system against those who will prosecute them.
280 pages, Paperback
First published August 27, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 20, 2022
So infuriating. America is literally becoming the Republic of Gilead.
May 3, 2022
I finished this book on the day a US Supreme Court draft was leaked in which Roe v Wade is overturned.
I read this book mostly while sitting in a fertility clinic, trying to get pregnant, and while I was raised to be unequivocally supportive of abortion, I felt my pro-choice nature get even stronger. I am bereft for the American people and how much the Christian right wants to hurt them.
While this book is quite dense and desperately needed a better editor, it meticulously laid out the Republican playbook of the last 20 years. And it is horrific. Hurting women and other pregnant people is entirely the point. Entirely.
I read this book mostly while sitting in a fertility clinic, trying to get pregnant, and while I was raised to be unequivocally supportive of abortion, I felt my pro-choice nature get even stronger. I am bereft for the American people and how much the Christian right wants to hurt them.
While this book is quite dense and desperately needed a better editor, it meticulously laid out the Republican playbook of the last 20 years. And it is horrific. Hurting women and other pregnant people is entirely the point. Entirely.
February 9, 2021
Marty and Pieklo (hereafter MP) have written a book which attempts to show the erosion of Roe v. Wade by looking at the bills that states have been passing which chip away at it. However, MP are clearly pro-choice advocates and make no attempt to even sound unbiased in their research. As a result, while the book is moderately informative, it's a real slog to get through if you don't love abortion as much as they do. They don't seem to understand that pro-life people actually do care about the lives of unborn children and so consistently push the lie that it's all about controlling women. This book was obviously written for hard-line pro-choice people, not to help pro-life people gain understanding of their point of view, nor even for people on the fence about it.
I'll start off by saying that I don't think this book was proofread at all. I ordinarily don't fixate on typographical errors because for me, it's all about the arguments. But in this case, there are so many errors (e.g. misspellings, wrong punctuation, words not capitalized when they should be, etc.) that it was altogether distracting. It really makes it seem like they didn't care enough about the content to ensure that it was presented well.
It's really difficult a lot of times to analyze MP's claims because they don't really give any arguments for them. They just assume, for example, that human embryos and fetuses (at least early embryos) are not persons but they never argue for it. They seem content to just assume it and then believe that pro-life people are evil for trying to defend the unborn from abortionists. I doubt they have a very robust understanding of rights, either, as they have no discussion of it. They just point to the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and assume that they made the right call in denying rights to unborn human beings.
They do provide numerous citations of the journeys these bills went through to get voted on, but they make many controversial claims that they provide absolutely no citations for. Some examples of the claims they make which they provide no citation for: Nearly the entire medical community has rejected a link between abortion and increased risks of suicide (p. 115); many Catholic hospitals refuse to allow the termination of pregnancies that endanger the mother's life (p. 164) -- although they did provide one piece of anecdotal evidence for this claim; fetuses surviving abortion attempts is pure fiction (p. 195); abortion is much safer than childbirth, especially early on (p. 202); and a fetus is incapable of feeling pain prior to the third trimester (p. 259), although they did allude to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for this last claim.
Not only are all of these claims controversial, MP can actually be shown to be completely wrong, through actual evidence. For example, many abortion attempts do result in a live birth. Not only are there pro-life advocates who are abortion survivors, but we also hear stories in the news about babies who were born alive after an abortion and the doctor refusing to save the child's life. Also, the ACOG is just wrong about when the fetus can feel pain. There has always been good reason to suspect it could feel pain earlier, but a recent study published by a pro-choice and pro-life academic, SWG Derbyshire and JC Bockmann, shows that there is good reason to suspect fetuses may feel pain much earlier than suspected -- as early as 12 weeks.
I could go on. There is even good evidence for the more controversial claims I listed above. But this isn't intended to be a full-on refutation of their arguments, merely a review of the book. While there is limited benefit to reading the book if you want to know some of the history of these bills, the authors' extreme bias, lack of proofreading, and shoddy arguments makes this book one that you can safely skip. Unless you're specifically interested in these bills as a pro-choice person, I don't see much benefit that you would receive from reading it.
I'll start off by saying that I don't think this book was proofread at all. I ordinarily don't fixate on typographical errors because for me, it's all about the arguments. But in this case, there are so many errors (e.g. misspellings, wrong punctuation, words not capitalized when they should be, etc.) that it was altogether distracting. It really makes it seem like they didn't care enough about the content to ensure that it was presented well.
It's really difficult a lot of times to analyze MP's claims because they don't really give any arguments for them. They just assume, for example, that human embryos and fetuses (at least early embryos) are not persons but they never argue for it. They seem content to just assume it and then believe that pro-life people are evil for trying to defend the unborn from abortionists. I doubt they have a very robust understanding of rights, either, as they have no discussion of it. They just point to the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and assume that they made the right call in denying rights to unborn human beings.
They do provide numerous citations of the journeys these bills went through to get voted on, but they make many controversial claims that they provide absolutely no citations for. Some examples of the claims they make which they provide no citation for: Nearly the entire medical community has rejected a link between abortion and increased risks of suicide (p. 115); many Catholic hospitals refuse to allow the termination of pregnancies that endanger the mother's life (p. 164) -- although they did provide one piece of anecdotal evidence for this claim; fetuses surviving abortion attempts is pure fiction (p. 195); abortion is much safer than childbirth, especially early on (p. 202); and a fetus is incapable of feeling pain prior to the third trimester (p. 259), although they did allude to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for this last claim.
Not only are all of these claims controversial, MP can actually be shown to be completely wrong, through actual evidence. For example, many abortion attempts do result in a live birth. Not only are there pro-life advocates who are abortion survivors, but we also hear stories in the news about babies who were born alive after an abortion and the doctor refusing to save the child's life. Also, the ACOG is just wrong about when the fetus can feel pain. There has always been good reason to suspect it could feel pain earlier, but a recent study published by a pro-choice and pro-life academic, SWG Derbyshire and JC Bockmann, shows that there is good reason to suspect fetuses may feel pain much earlier than suspected -- as early as 12 weeks.
I could go on. There is even good evidence for the more controversial claims I listed above. But this isn't intended to be a full-on refutation of their arguments, merely a review of the book. While there is limited benefit to reading the book if you want to know some of the history of these bills, the authors' extreme bias, lack of proofreading, and shoddy arguments makes this book one that you can safely skip. Unless you're specifically interested in these bills as a pro-choice person, I don't see much benefit that you would receive from reading it.
March 24, 2020
Dense
January 11, 2021
Interesting but has a lot of jargon I found difficult to follow at times; otherwise informative and eye-opening.
June 10, 2024
Interesting summation of the book as they sort of side eyed progressives and suggested they’d be the ones to cause Roe to be overturned.
Yes, it was obviously written before the actual ruling so they couldn’t know exactly how it would shake out—but their argument that progressives might just give abortion rights over for action in the Green New Deal (which they refer to as the New Green Deal) or something like that was obtuse to say the least.
To spend the entire book pointing out the obvious ways conservatives were attacking abortion rights for decades, the way the Supreme Court was chipping away and then to predict that? Bizarre.
Yes, it was obviously written before the actual ruling so they couldn’t know exactly how it would shake out—but their argument that progressives might just give abortion rights over for action in the Green New Deal (which they refer to as the New Green Deal) or something like that was obtuse to say the least.
To spend the entire book pointing out the obvious ways conservatives were attacking abortion rights for decades, the way the Supreme Court was chipping away and then to predict that? Bizarre.
December 2, 2021
I found this to be a well balanced book, consisting mostly of a State by State narrative of legislative and judiciary reviews in the last 10 years, seaking to oppose Roe v Wade. The book touches capstone cases, such as Planned Parenthood v Casey up until Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (both dealing with what constitutes undue burden), and the US state laws aimed at baning abortion.
The book in fact has a clear political inclination (bias, if you want), being overtly pro-choice. Nonwithstanding, references to case law and legal developments are well structured. This book manages both, being a solid reference and a quick intro, into the recent developments of anti abortion legislation in the US. Easy to read, easy to follow.
The book in fact has a clear political inclination (bias, if you want), being overtly pro-choice. Nonwithstanding, references to case law and legal developments are well structured. This book manages both, being a solid reference and a quick intro, into the recent developments of anti abortion legislation in the US. Easy to read, easy to follow.
July 15, 2022
It is very frustrating to read how the Republicans have been trying to overturn Roe v Wade for the last 20 years or so, and how the capability and right of a woman to make decisions for herself are completely set aside as if women are incapable to make these kind of choices. It is supposed to be in the better interest of the unborn fetus, but is it? It is definitely not in the best interest of the women in the US, specifically impacting the poor ones.
Overall, this book was quite dense. It had a lot of interesting details and examples, but it definitely could’ve been written better.
Overall, this book was quite dense. It had a lot of interesting details and examples, but it definitely could’ve been written better.
July 29, 2022
'the end of roe v. wade' is more of a report on the legal side of abortion (as its subtitle suggests), like one long article reporting recent events. marty discusses numerous bills introduced, laws passed, and those carried through (the anti-abortion protesters never seem to go to trial, no coincidence). "fetal pain," "heart beat," and "conscience" bills use unfounded or junk science --similar to scientists who deny climate change, paid for my fossil fuel companies; or creationists and education, and the like--researched by anti-abortion organizations. "conscience" bills are those stories you hear of pharmacies refusing to sell condoms, plan b, birth control, etc., along with doctors/medical staff refusing talking about abortion even as an option (though the opposite laws have been passed, waiting periods, multiple visits, mental health checks, and doctors forced to read options besides an abortion, including trying to reverse medication abortions); the wildest examples were taxi drivers refusing to take customers to their locations because it might be abortion related (same period in that infamous story about a bakery refusing service to gay couples). if it's not that, there's the absurd trap/gotcha laws like the abortion clinic must have doors a certain width, and technicalities in instrument placing, or having emergency stand-by doctors/medical providers in case something "goes wrong"--when abortions are incredibly safe-- and if not, they must be referred to( / by ) a hospital near by, but those conscience laws are in place, and often only catholic hospitals are near by, so it's another technicality to prevent abortion, even though the provider is right there, able, and safe. then there's health insurance laws and employers having to approve medical conditions, and federal money not being able to pay for abortions even when it is technically legal, but the poor rely on medicaid so it won't pay for abortion, a vicious cycle. there's banning d and e abortions, dilation and evacuation, which is obviously likely needed for second trimester removal, but also banned is the alternative removing multiple, smaller segments, based on more junk science of "calcification"--trying to make a medical process "gross" to "win" people over, while, newsflash, by that standard all medical procedures would be banned. there's punishing women for miscarriages and putting them in jail, or in the case of texas, the death penalty; arresting women if they go out of state for abortion, or anyone aiding them. it's a constant, depressing, frustrating stream of christian extremism and control over bodily autonomy--the government constantly failing to remove church from state. and that begs the question: ever since invasion and colonization, has the u.s. ever - not - been a christian nationalist country? marty does not touch this question, but i feel the need to raise it after all i just read. while i still think the best book on abortion in the u.s. from a "readability" standpoint is jenny brown's 'without apology,' which also offers feminist and women's liberation theory along with a concise history, and the equally noteworthy collective work 'we organize to change everything' (adler) expands upon those notions for those looking for a further radical and international look at abortion; 'the end of roe v. wade' is excellent in its own right, going into the litigious side and technicalities of law and abortion, less "readable" per se, but more strictly informative. i was thinking four stars, but for a resource on abortion in the u.s., it's certainly five and worth your time. (another suggestion about the topic of the volunteers guarding patients of abortion clinics, and the extremism of protesters is 'bodies on the line' (rankin), and of course need to mention the absolute essential dorothy roberts: 'killing the black body.')
January 18, 2023
So this was a great and infuriating book to listen to. Had to let the hold lapse and return when the wait time came to my position as it came back. It was very dense with words, but literature, right? Kind of. Kind of in the way it wanted to convey all around yet getting to technology made it hard to pan out to nongovernment/lawyer types.
It amazes me how the right of the living breathing already here is so invalidated all for potential. All for a what-if of something that might not happen (perfect pregnancy, financial being fine, mental/physical health being good, etc) just so another human can be borm in the world. I am not anti-children, or anti-theist, i am pro-choice. This means if you want to have a child in whatever situation you find yourself in have at it, but for me or anyone else who may not now/ever want that should be just as respected. Cause, in the end, the anti-choice promote their religion disregarding what other values/religious belief says to that person's own dictation about their body.
And as the book predicted, with trump in, roe lost. children have gotten pregnant through rape and couldn't get abortions unless traveling out of their home state. Chaos is ensuing all for what? Nothing. Cause in the end it is all about control and those who can get pregnant are treated like making a choice in beyond their mental capacity. It is a hard choice to make keep, not keep in any context but as republicans once agreed before changing their tune, it should be between the doctor and patient, not everyone but the patient.
It amazes me how the right of the living breathing already here is so invalidated all for potential. All for a what-if of something that might not happen (perfect pregnancy, financial being fine, mental/physical health being good, etc) just so another human can be borm in the world. I am not anti-children, or anti-theist, i am pro-choice. This means if you want to have a child in whatever situation you find yourself in have at it, but for me or anyone else who may not now/ever want that should be just as respected. Cause, in the end, the anti-choice promote their religion disregarding what other values/religious belief says to that person's own dictation about their body.
And as the book predicted, with trump in, roe lost. children have gotten pregnant through rape and couldn't get abortions unless traveling out of their home state. Chaos is ensuing all for what? Nothing. Cause in the end it is all about control and those who can get pregnant are treated like making a choice in beyond their mental capacity. It is a hard choice to make keep, not keep in any context but as republicans once agreed before changing their tune, it should be between the doctor and patient, not everyone but the patient.
September 13, 2022
Great information about the strategy and history of the right's vile, evil attack on women's rights and health rights solely in the name of making abortion illegal. It was really eye-opening for someone fortunate enough to be naive to this world. It left me feeling pretty bleak given the current state of our courts, but that makes sense. I'm looking forward to reading more of Robin Marty's work regarding Roe v. Wade. The only thing I wished the book had is an introduction of the case of Roe v. Wade as I'm ignorant to that as well, but that obviously wasn't the intent of this book.
March 30, 2025
This book feels like a jolt to the system for anyone who cares about reproductive rights and social justice. What stands out is how it lays bare the decades of oppressive policies that have led to real, heartbreaking consequences for so many lives. And yet, its most haunting power lies in imagining a post-Roe world, forcing us to confront the moment's urgency. It’s not just a read; it’s a rallying cry for anyone who believes in the fight for freedom and dignity.
May 18, 2022
I loved this state-by-state breakdown of what will likely happen when Roe-v-Wade is overturned. This book was so informative and interesting to read. This book talks about what has been happening the past few years with all of the states passing more and more restrictive abortion laws. This is good information to know!
January 22, 2026
Sometimes I like to read books written pre-dobbs that theorize about the coming end of roe and then I think about all the people who didn’t believe abortion access advocates when we worried aloud about the state of abortion accessibility to come. You know, for fun.
July 5, 2022
Very procedural.
August 6, 2022
Read this after the situation started getting serious but before Roe v Wade was actually struck down. Useful and depressing historical context to motivate all the action & organizing for the future!
January 13, 2023
Wow wow wow. I will never not be horrified of those begging for human rights to be stripped. this only makes me scared for the future but whilst understanding the past better.
July 20, 2025
3.75 star
very informative, kind of dry, a little hard to follow timeline wise.
very informative, kind of dry, a little hard to follow timeline wise.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews