Your Post-Roe reading list
Lots of smart people have lots of smart things to say. An incomplete list.
If you missed it, the Supreme Court is about to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which will end the right to an abortion and allow states (or the federal government) to implement various restrictions and outright bans on the practice. It goes without saying, but this is very bad. Politico obtained a leaked draft opinion, written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee and one of the most conservative members of the court.
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by POLITICO.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes.
Rather than try to write something new and (hopefully) insightful, I want to simply share some of the things I’ve been reading over the past day or so.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is channeling what a lot of people are feeling today:
A visibly shaken and angry Senator Elizabeth Warren just spoke in-front of #SCOTUS. @TheNationalNews
Here are some truly essential reads from the likes of Lyz Lenz, Moira Donegan, Jessica Valenti, Talia Lavin, and Heather Cox Richardson.
Nicole Hannah Jones reminds us that the right wasn’t always so anti-Roe (and what their broader agenda was/is).
“It wasn’t until 1979—a full six years after Roe—that evangelical leaders..:seized on abortion not for moral reasons, but…because the anti-abortion crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools.”
You can’t understand the court overturning Roe without understanding the role racism has played in the rise of the religious right and no reporter should report on this without talking about what may come next: Rulings against civil rights.
Digital surveillance of people seeking abortions is something you may not have known you needed to be worried about.
my last @MotherJones story is out today. it's about digital surveillance by law enforcement and anti-abortion activists to harass and prosecute people seeking abortions. but also it's about the ever thinning line between our digital lives and our bodies.
NEW: A location data firm is selling information related to abortion clinic visits, showing where groups of people visiting these locations came from, how long they stayed there, and where they went afterwards.
John Ganz has a new post about living under minority rule.
Jared Holt wrote about the bizarre insistence that the leak of the decision is a bigger story than the decision itself (for one, the decision will result in people dying; the leak will not cause any deaths.)
Julia Moser’s tweet about the way news organizations tip-toe around abortion really highlights how afraid of appearing liberal news orgs are, and how that has very negative consequences for society.
i no longer work for a news organization so i can say without fear of penalty for my job that news organizations' reluctance to touch abortion and to cover it honestly (very popular! not that controversial!) for fear of seeming too liberal is a big part of why we are here
Just yesterday, the Washington Post reported that anti-abortion politicians and organizers are in the process of getting ready to push for a national abortion ban.
SCOOP: Top antiabortion leaders and GOP lawmakers have been meeting behind the scenes to strategize for a national abortion ban, mobilizing around a proposal that would outlaw the procedure at 6 weeks.
Here’s what I’ve learned about their plans 🧵washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05…
If you’re going to protests, know your rights.
We have a right to abortion and we will fight for it. If you're taking to the streets today to march for reproductive freedom, we're with you.
Know your rights.
You can currently still access abortion medications anywhere in the U.S., FYI!
And if you want to help out, one of the best things you can do is donate to local abortion funds. NNAF has a way to split your donations between more than 80 of these groups.
Instantly distrusting of anyone using this to place blame and point fingers and sling slick analysis instead of figuring out ways to help and care for people feeling deeply unsafe and scared right now.
List of abortion funds here:
UPDATE: The @AbortionFunds site is still down but you can give to directly to more than 80 abortion funds NOW via this link:
And Alison Turkos has a great resource if you’re just trying to help out, generally.
I made this document b/c I know my friends + loved ones in the repro movement don't have the capacity to answer all questions, or tell folks where to go + what to do. I made this so you can turn your anger into action. We all can do something, here's how:
Edit: Download Robin Marty’s The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America here:
The New Handbook for a Post Roe America by @robinmarty is free to download from our website. Download it. Read it. Send it to a friend.
There are a lot more links I could share and a lot more people I could plug right now, but this is one of those instances where I feel like it’s important to get info out fast.
I’m sure I’ll be writing more about this in weeks and months to come, as well as touching on how this decision (assuming the draft opinion resembles the final version) sets up the court to strike down other important rights (see: marriage equality, the return of sodomy bans, and well… just about anything that 5 SCOTUS justices think fall outside the “tradition” of the U.S.). But that’s for another day.
Sometimes you don't have to have much to say, but rather being a conduit for those who do is valuable.This is great for helping give us useful information from a lot of different angles. Thanks.
Thank you so much for doing this, Parker. It's been overwhelming to try and piece everything together so you've done a great service helping us to get to the articles we need (and you're a very trusted source).