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The Lie That Binds
Public support for the legal right to abortion in the United States is at an all-time high. Yet we’re in the midst of an all-out assault on reproductive freedom, and Roe v. Wade is hanging on by a thread.
The Lie that Binds is the indispensable account of how the formerly non-partisan, back-burner issue of abortion rights was reinvented as the sharp point of the spear for a much larger reactionary movement bent on maintaining control in a changing world. Written by NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue and Research Director Ellie Langford, The Lie that Binds traces the evolution of some of the most dangerous and least understood forces in U.S. politics, offering an unflinchingly incisive analysis of the conservative political machinery designed to thwart social progress — all built around the foundational lie that their motivations are based in moral convictions about individual pregnancies.
This book introduces the colorful cast of characters behind the Radical Right — from anti-ERA protestors to men’s rights activists — and explains how conservative political operatives intentionally targeted abortion as a rallying cry for their followers as their other prejudices fell from favor. Abortion acted as a Trojan horse to move a deeply unpopular, regressive policy agenda.
Hogue and Langford’s deeply-researched investigation is an essential primer for political observers, journalists, and engaged citizens, pulling back the curtain on how this extremist operation drives our politics and threatens our democracy. Read it and learn the truth behind the lie that binds the radical right together.
The Lie that Binds is the indispensable account of how the formerly non-partisan, back-burner issue of abortion rights was reinvented as the sharp point of the spear for a much larger reactionary movement bent on maintaining control in a changing world. Written by NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue and Research Director Ellie Langford, The Lie that Binds traces the evolution of some of the most dangerous and least understood forces in U.S. politics, offering an unflinchingly incisive analysis of the conservative political machinery designed to thwart social progress — all built around the foundational lie that their motivations are based in moral convictions about individual pregnancies.
This book introduces the colorful cast of characters behind the Radical Right — from anti-ERA protestors to men’s rights activists — and explains how conservative political operatives intentionally targeted abortion as a rallying cry for their followers as their other prejudices fell from favor. Abortion acted as a Trojan horse to move a deeply unpopular, regressive policy agenda.
Hogue and Langford’s deeply-researched investigation is an essential primer for political observers, journalists, and engaged citizens, pulling back the curtain on how this extremist operation drives our politics and threatens our democracy. Read it and learn the truth behind the lie that binds the radical right together.
Kindle Edition
First published July 22, 2020
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About the author
Ilyse Hogue
2 books8 followersIlyse Hogue is an American progressive activist who has served as president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a reproductive rights lobbying and advocacy organization, since 2013.
Hogue was born in Dallas, Texas in August 1969. Her family is Jewish. She graduated from high school at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas before attending Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she studied environmental sciences. She attended graduate school at the University of Michigan and then later worked as a research assistant at the University of Montana. At Vassar, she engaged in her first political work in April 1989 when she joined the March for Women's Lives, a demonstration focused on reproductive rights.
Hogue joined NARAL in January 2013. When assuming the role of president, some commentators remarked on her relative youth compared to her sexagenarian predecessor (she was 43 at the time) as an intentional choice on the part of NARAL as it sought to bring a more aggressive approach to defending abortion rights and courting younger supporters.
One of her first moves as president was to build coalitions within the progressive movement with groups that traditionally had little to do with reproductive rights. She has also brought an increased focus on ballot measures, partly in an attempt to force opponents to define what they are in favor of while giving Americans who support abortion rights a platform.
Hogue was born in Dallas, Texas in August 1969. Her family is Jewish. She graduated from high school at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas before attending Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she studied environmental sciences. She attended graduate school at the University of Michigan and then later worked as a research assistant at the University of Montana. At Vassar, she engaged in her first political work in April 1989 when she joined the March for Women's Lives, a demonstration focused on reproductive rights.
Hogue joined NARAL in January 2013. When assuming the role of president, some commentators remarked on her relative youth compared to her sexagenarian predecessor (she was 43 at the time) as an intentional choice on the part of NARAL as it sought to bring a more aggressive approach to defending abortion rights and courting younger supporters.
One of her first moves as president was to build coalitions within the progressive movement with groups that traditionally had little to do with reproductive rights. She has also brought an increased focus on ballot measures, partly in an attempt to force opponents to define what they are in favor of while giving Americans who support abortion rights a platform.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
June 10, 2022
An astoundingly bad book. It’s dumbed-down tone reflects the worst kind of Teen Vogue feminism, like a kids comic book version of Rick Perlstein’s Reaganland, seemingly reflecting the idea that women can’t understand big words. Its argument is borderline incoherent, possibly because the theory that the right “doesn’t really” want to overturn Roe was debunked as the book was coming to print. The books structure is also incoherent, with no judgement as to what facts are important.
For a history of the right, I recommend Perlstein’s four volumes. For a thoughtful abortion rights theory/history, I recommend Katha Pollit’s Pro.
For a history of the right, I recommend Perlstein’s four volumes. For a thoughtful abortion rights theory/history, I recommend Katha Pollit’s Pro.
August 26, 2020
This was an interesting, if biased, history of the takeover of the Republican Party by the Radical Right, from the 1970s to the present day, written by one of the leaders of the reproductive rights faction. The text itself is fairly short and readable. Each chapter was followed by a ton of footnotes, which it was annoying to have to page through on my kindle.
Hogue's central thesis is that the anti-abortion movement, which dominates the Radical Right, is really not about abortion at all. Abortion is just the trigger they have used to gain support. She calls it their "Trojan horse". She claims that their true objective is a return to power exclusively in the hands of white Christian men. Her documentation of their political activities seems well supported, but the analysis of their true objective is less so. Although I tend to agree with her. I've always thought that the anti-abortion movement was less about abortion and more about repressing and controlling women.
I don't think I really learned much new from this book, aside from some details of political activity, but it was an interesting read.
Hogue's central thesis is that the anti-abortion movement, which dominates the Radical Right, is really not about abortion at all. Abortion is just the trigger they have used to gain support. She calls it their "Trojan horse". She claims that their true objective is a return to power exclusively in the hands of white Christian men. Her documentation of their political activities seems well supported, but the analysis of their true objective is less so. Although I tend to agree with her. I've always thought that the anti-abortion movement was less about abortion and more about repressing and controlling women.
I don't think I really learned much new from this book, aside from some details of political activity, but it was an interesting read.
May 6, 2022
If you think the attack on abortion rights is solely about a disagreement among Americans over when life begins, then you haven’t been paying attention. That’s not entirely your fault, however. There’s no meaningful civics education in school that delves into the actual history of women’s rights in America, apart from maybe a mention of the suffrage movement, for starters. Plus the mainstream media generally covers the abortion issue as one of those “there are two sides to this” stories with a “pro-life” side vs a “pro-choice” side.
To go deeper, I can’t recommend enough The Lie That Binds, a 2020 book written by Ilyse Hogue and Ellie Langford. They show two things in critical detail. First, how the anti-abortion issue was seized on by Christian fundamentalists like Paul Weyrich, one of the key architects of the New Right, to pull evangelicals as well as Catholics into the GOP at a moment when more explicit appeals to racial segregation were no longer politically viable. It’s always important to remember that until the New Right, many evangelicals did not prioritize abortion as an issue and even supported choice, but when the IRS started going after the tax-exempt status of whites-only private schools they got politically activated. (See Randall Ballmer for more on this.)
And second, they show how leaders of the religious right figured out how to weaponize anti-abortion fervor and turn it into political power. Meanwhile Democrats and pro-choice advocates held back, often accepting a shame-based framing of the issue by claiming they just wanted abortion to be “safe, legal and rare.” If you have ever found yourself wondering how so many Christian fundamentalists, people like Phyllis Schlafly or Jerry Falwell Jr., became fierce allies of a pussy-grabbing divorcee from Manhattan who never went to church and couldn’t find his way around a Bible if he tried, The Lie That Binds will answer your question. As Weyrich himself told a meeting of rightwing activists in 1990, this has never just been about ending abortion: it’s about galvanizing the anxieties of Americans who identify with the traditions of white Christian patriarchy, giving them a sense of moral superiority, and building the power to keep the country from turning into a multiracial social democracy. The book also shows how critical the anti-abortion movement was to Trump’s 2016 victory and how much he and Mike Pence, a key figure in the administration, put fundamentalists into powerful positions across the government, where they did enormous human damage (like visiting pregnant undocumented immigrants in detention and personally harassing them).
To go deeper, I can’t recommend enough The Lie That Binds, a 2020 book written by Ilyse Hogue and Ellie Langford. They show two things in critical detail. First, how the anti-abortion issue was seized on by Christian fundamentalists like Paul Weyrich, one of the key architects of the New Right, to pull evangelicals as well as Catholics into the GOP at a moment when more explicit appeals to racial segregation were no longer politically viable. It’s always important to remember that until the New Right, many evangelicals did not prioritize abortion as an issue and even supported choice, but when the IRS started going after the tax-exempt status of whites-only private schools they got politically activated. (See Randall Ballmer for more on this.)
And second, they show how leaders of the religious right figured out how to weaponize anti-abortion fervor and turn it into political power. Meanwhile Democrats and pro-choice advocates held back, often accepting a shame-based framing of the issue by claiming they just wanted abortion to be “safe, legal and rare.” If you have ever found yourself wondering how so many Christian fundamentalists, people like Phyllis Schlafly or Jerry Falwell Jr., became fierce allies of a pussy-grabbing divorcee from Manhattan who never went to church and couldn’t find his way around a Bible if he tried, The Lie That Binds will answer your question. As Weyrich himself told a meeting of rightwing activists in 1990, this has never just been about ending abortion: it’s about galvanizing the anxieties of Americans who identify with the traditions of white Christian patriarchy, giving them a sense of moral superiority, and building the power to keep the country from turning into a multiracial social democracy. The book also shows how critical the anti-abortion movement was to Trump’s 2016 victory and how much he and Mike Pence, a key figure in the administration, put fundamentalists into powerful positions across the government, where they did enormous human damage (like visiting pregnant undocumented immigrants in detention and personally harassing them).
September 7, 2020
I believe this book is a must read on both sides of the aisle. Sheds light to misinformation. I learned so much about reproductive rights and how it’s interlinked time to so many Social justice issues. This book and activist work it outlines, is the platform and the backdrop of why the work I do everyday as a reproductive health clinician matters. It in a way that affects each and everyone of us. And why we should all be standing up, and fighting for the health and wellness of women and families, period.
April 30, 2021
A well-researched booked with a TON of citations for further reading to learn more about the history of the political ant-abortion movement. It definitely has a more progressive slant and I'd encourage anyone who read this book to also read "Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice" by Dr. Willie Parker.
My timing of reading this book was inopportune, as the state I lived in signed a forced pregnancy bill into the law the same week I was reading it. While it made me made me more enraged while reading it, it did help me better identify the rhetorical tools being used by the politicians. I now understand more of the history and motivation behind those rhetorical choices and the movement to make more informed choices when fighting back.
My timing of reading this book was inopportune, as the state I lived in signed a forced pregnancy bill into the law the same week I was reading it. While it made me made me more enraged while reading it, it did help me better identify the rhetorical tools being used by the politicians. I now understand more of the history and motivation behind those rhetorical choices and the movement to make more informed choices when fighting back.
October 4, 2020
This book explains how we got in this mess of bodily autonomy being stripped away despite the outrage from 75% of Americans. How they have used womxn to wear a false mask of ‘Feminism’ to further the agenda—using womxn to fight against womxn. You’ll never guess that this relentless, cruel campaigning of the anti-choice side’s movement all started with just one thing: Race.
June 8, 2023
This, along with Gun Fight by Ryan Busse, is probably one of the most important books you can read to really grasp why the US is where we are today politically. Hogue’s book is one of the most thoroughly footnoted books I have ever read.
May 23, 2022
The lies and disinformation campaign of the radical right laid bare. They have no shame at all.
January 2, 2024
A must-read for anyone interested in reproductive healthcare and how the United States got to a place where the overturning of Roe V Wade was possible.
May 30, 2022
Here's the backstory of what brought us to the current threat of a national abortion ban, which we must understand in order to forge a more just and democratic future.
Hogue and her colleague Ellie Langford (ex-research director of NARAL) do a brilliant job tracing some of the most dangerous forces in U.S. politics - the conservative networks intent upon taking away our rights and freedoms (while enshrining corporate rights and freedoms) and establishing white Christian male rule, or "dominionism."
The "Lie" is that they are motivated by moral convictions around the unborn.
As Paul Weyrich (the founder of some of the most important and powerful groups on the Right including Heritage and ALEC, and an early proponent of the Religious Right's investment in politics) himself pointed out, abortion was not the original impetus for evangelicals' entry into politics. (Weyrich also helped Jerry Falwell found the Moral Morajority. Abortion was not on his radar until later).
As described in "The Trojan Horse" (Chapter 1), in 1990 Weyrich "unloaded" on the all-male attendees at the Ethics and Public Policy Conference, lecturing them that they knew little about the origins their own movement and what it had taken to build the radical right into the political powerhouse it had by then become:
"He admonished the foot soldiers of the movement that they had spent so much time repeating the myth they originated from backlash to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, that they had come to believe it themselves. They had lost sight of the reality of their coalition's foundation. As a result, the careful strategies Weyrich and his contemporaries had developed to build power on the back of abortion for the purpose of their true agenda were slowly being distorted."
An astonished young historian buttonholed Weyrich after his speech to confirm that he'd heard him clearly. Yes, the purpose of the movement organized heavily around abortion politics was to place white, male Christians in charge -- i.e. "dominionist" Biblical law. The movement should remember that they have broader aspirations than banning abortion.
In other words, what drove the Republicans (and we see it today) was not some "true believer" movement but a marriage between wild-eyed zealots and cynical political operatives (like Kelly Ann Conway, who worked as a pollster for the religious right before joining the Trump administration) who have long sought to profit from inflaming the anger, resentment, prejudice, and fear of a small minority of Americans. And attacks on reproductive freedom were just the sharp edge of a wedge that Republican increasingly adopted as a means to hold and gain power.
In fact decades ago it was actually desegregation and the threat that Christian schools would lose their tax-exempt status that provided the impetus to convince religious leaders to get involved in politics. (Weyrich recast the story as partisan at the same time, blaming Carter for the threat, when it was Nixon that had started the intervention against Bob Jones University after it refused to desegregate).
[MORE here later]
Although the book was published in 2020, it remains relevant and the lessons drawn remain the same: a) Call out the conservative movement for what it is intent upon -- establishing a ruling class of white fundamentalist Christian men with zero tolerance for dissent, especially from women. b) Confront hypocrisy and disinformatio and put Republicans on the defensive. How do they plan to enforce thedraconian restrictions they're proposing without creating a dystopian police state? Why won't they use public health to guide policy making? Do they know better than their constituents -- 90 percent of whom are opposed to many of the laws they're now pushing (and passing)?
Hogue and her colleague Ellie Langford (ex-research director of NARAL) do a brilliant job tracing some of the most dangerous forces in U.S. politics - the conservative networks intent upon taking away our rights and freedoms (while enshrining corporate rights and freedoms) and establishing white Christian male rule, or "dominionism."
The "Lie" is that they are motivated by moral convictions around the unborn.
As Paul Weyrich (the founder of some of the most important and powerful groups on the Right including Heritage and ALEC, and an early proponent of the Religious Right's investment in politics) himself pointed out, abortion was not the original impetus for evangelicals' entry into politics. (Weyrich also helped Jerry Falwell found the Moral Morajority. Abortion was not on his radar until later).
As described in "The Trojan Horse" (Chapter 1), in 1990 Weyrich "unloaded" on the all-male attendees at the Ethics and Public Policy Conference, lecturing them that they knew little about the origins their own movement and what it had taken to build the radical right into the political powerhouse it had by then become:
"He admonished the foot soldiers of the movement that they had spent so much time repeating the myth they originated from backlash to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, that they had come to believe it themselves. They had lost sight of the reality of their coalition's foundation. As a result, the careful strategies Weyrich and his contemporaries had developed to build power on the back of abortion for the purpose of their true agenda were slowly being distorted."
An astonished young historian buttonholed Weyrich after his speech to confirm that he'd heard him clearly. Yes, the purpose of the movement organized heavily around abortion politics was to place white, male Christians in charge -- i.e. "dominionist" Biblical law. The movement should remember that they have broader aspirations than banning abortion.
In other words, what drove the Republicans (and we see it today) was not some "true believer" movement but a marriage between wild-eyed zealots and cynical political operatives (like Kelly Ann Conway, who worked as a pollster for the religious right before joining the Trump administration) who have long sought to profit from inflaming the anger, resentment, prejudice, and fear of a small minority of Americans. And attacks on reproductive freedom were just the sharp edge of a wedge that Republican increasingly adopted as a means to hold and gain power.
In fact decades ago it was actually desegregation and the threat that Christian schools would lose their tax-exempt status that provided the impetus to convince religious leaders to get involved in politics. (Weyrich recast the story as partisan at the same time, blaming Carter for the threat, when it was Nixon that had started the intervention against Bob Jones University after it refused to desegregate).
[MORE here later]
Although the book was published in 2020, it remains relevant and the lessons drawn remain the same: a) Call out the conservative movement for what it is intent upon -- establishing a ruling class of white fundamentalist Christian men with zero tolerance for dissent, especially from women. b) Confront hypocrisy and disinformatio and put Republicans on the defensive. How do they plan to enforce thedraconian restrictions they're proposing without creating a dystopian police state? Why won't they use public health to guide policy making? Do they know better than their constituents -- 90 percent of whom are opposed to many of the laws they're now pushing (and passing)?
May 20, 2022
If you are seeking to understand why abortion is such a hot political topic in the USA then let this book be your guide. Revealed in these pages is a story that will be both surprising & disturbing. Abortion has been used in recent decades by the Radical Right as a Trojan Horse. They have far grander designs & are using this issue as a means to an end. If you search on Spotify you will find a Podcast of the same name from the same author which is worth a listen. What is clear is that nothing is what it seems.
December 1, 2023
This is a must-read. Hogue lays bare the ways in which the Religious Right has used abortion as a cover for their real agenda: maintaining and increasing the power of white evangelical Christians and their desire to impose their values on the country. The book is definitely partisan but that fact does not undermine the evidence evinced for its theses. The more that I read about Christian nationalism the more frightened and angry I get. This book was written before ROE was overturned so it provides a good introduction to how that decision came about. Highly recommended!
May 24, 2025
If you’re interested in the history of reproductive rights in the US then this is the book for you. Excellent, in-depth and even though I knew a fair bit about the subject in advance I learnt A TON.
3 slights issues
- Some minor typos, it’s a small publisher so I’m not gonna hold that too harshly
- Sometimes the timeline jumped and references were repeated making the continuity confusing
- It felt quite unfinished ending just before the election, seemed an odd choice
3 slights issues
- Some minor typos, it’s a small publisher so I’m not gonna hold that too harshly
- Sometimes the timeline jumped and references were repeated making the continuity confusing
- It felt quite unfinished ending just before the election, seemed an odd choice
February 5, 2021
Helps explain how we got the radical extreme right, "alternative facts", and a war on reproductive rights from legislators who have never been pregnant and clearly know nothing about maternal mortality rates in the US. People die in childbirth at an unconscionable rate, especially women of color. Sadly, knowledge is not a prerequisite for power.
July 26, 2023
It's a shame the copyediting for this book was so sloppy. Because it's important research that continues to be relevant today.
I have to wonder if a post-RBG / post-Dobbs afterward is in the works. Because holy shit have things changed since this was published.
This was enraging. But it's important. Very, very important.
#resist
#mybodymychoice
I have to wonder if a post-RBG / post-Dobbs afterward is in the works. Because holy shit have things changed since this was published.
This was enraging. But it's important. Very, very important.
#resist
#mybodymychoice
July 30, 2022
A must read for anyone outraged by the supreme court’s abortion decision and concerned about the future of democracy. Important truths explained to help understand how we got here - which also reveal the beginnings of the path to what to do next.
December 16, 2022
Extensive research extensively documented. Most of it I knew already, but people who have not focused a bunch of attention on the topic over the last few years probably wouldn’t. I learned a bit too. But just because what you say happened did happen doesn’t always mean your interpretations are correct. Important history, but I have some questions about analysis.
September 27, 2020
Not particularly bad for context, but not particularly good and I would argue too focused on the present
December 13, 2020
Drawing a straight line from the right wing seeds planted in the 70s to the noxious weeds choking American reproductive rights politics in the 2020s.
March 27, 2021
Very compelling, and extremely well-researched. Every claim is cited. Really good.
April 14, 2021
Interesting account of the radical right takeover of the GOP. Cloaking their real aim of male white power retention in religious freedom.
January 26, 2022
Would have been four stars if not for the myriad typos. Get a copy editor, sheesh!
June 6, 2022
Excellent extended essay
March 13, 2023
A factual historical book about the political history of the radical far-right fundamentalists and how they gained control of the political machine.
December 29, 2023
Ilyse Hogue is rewriting history in this book. So many strange/obvious twists on the truth. Can't recommend.
August 15, 2024
Although published in 2020 before the seismic events of January 2021, this remains an essential read for progressives in the United States.
November 18, 2020
This was good! A really dark history of how the radical right has weaponized abortion to assert white male dominance. A lot of telling & not showing here - they mention a “Trojan horse” about 100 times, but sometimes I wish there were more clear examples of what specifically they’re referring to. 4/5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews