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The Whodunit Investigating the Death of Roe: A Q&A With Amy Littlefield

Abortion access reporter Amy Littlefield’s new book reports on the grassroots social movement that amassed enough power to overturn legal abortion, despite being a minority point of view.

When the Supreme Court lurched rightward in the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, veteran reproductive rights reporter Amy Littlefield knew what was coming: there were now enough conservative votes to overturn Roe v. Wade. Sure enough, under two years later, the Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion, paving the way for 13 states to ban the procedure entirely. Littlefield’s new book, Killers of Roe, investigates the decades-long effort to end legal abortion via an unlikely angle: the book is framed as a whodunit, setting out to track down the culprit responsible for overturning legal abortion and discern how they succeeded when the right had always held most Americans’ support. From the Roe v. Wade turning point in 1973 to its dismantling nearly 50 years later, Littlefield’s book offers an account of the anti-choice movement’s rise, and the amalgam of political tactics and righteous belief that undergird it. The contradictions that emerge as Littlefield probes this “spiritual civil war” demand nuance in what can otherwise seem like a coldly polarized dispute: Nancy Reagan was quietly pro-choice, former Republican Senator Bob Packwood was a womanizer who “cared about abortion rights, even as he took advantage of women’s lower social status.” Littlefield surveys fractures within the pro-choice movement, too: Frances Kissling, the former head of Catholics for Choice and otherwise on Littlefield’s “side,” questions the use of gender-inclusive language when talking about abortion. Her investigation becomes a character study in the interests of broader historical revelation: As she awaits Roger Craver, the pioneer of progressive organizations’ direct mail programs that historians have argued led to a focus on issues most relevant to the donor class, Littlefield writes, “I felt as if I was about to confront not just a person, but a phenomenon.”

That tension of scope between the role of individuals and structures is one Littlefield takes on with an inveterate reporter’s mind:  She calls politicians to account for the legislation they’ve collectively effected; fits specific victims like Rosie Jimenez into a broader exposé of abortion as fundamentally a class issue; channels her own bursts of anger into the energy of the pro-choice movement at large. She finds footholds in the granularity of one-on-one meetings with anti-choice figureheads — and even a skinny-dip in Mexico with Kissling — to draw out decades of political meaning. In writing this book, Littlefield told me, she investigated anti-abortion luminaries as suspects in the format of a thriller — accessible like the mysteries that have always brought her satisfaction and comfort. She called into this interview from a lactation room in Baltimore, and hung up to find a fellow nursing mom had left her a business card scrawled with a thank you. —Sophie Mann-Shafir

SMS: What did writing this book make you think about how and why Roe was overturned? Is there a single answer?

AL: I think it’s a complicated, multi-layered answer. A lot of us who have covered this topic understand that the balance of power on the Supreme Court and the legal organizing work of groups like Alliance Defending Freedom played a huge role at the macro level. But I was interested in digging into the more grassroots level to examine the behind-the-scenes figures that you haven’t heard of. I think one of the tough realities to confront as someone who supports the right to abortion is that abortion opponents built an incredibly impressive grassroots social movement, and they did so even though they represented a minority point of view. Pretty quickly after Roe v Wade happened, more people supported legal abortion than not. And yet, despite holding a minority viewpoint, this movement succeeded in the monumental victory of overturning a constitutional right. And they did so because of the famous strategists and Supreme Court justices, but also because of quieter people in the shadows.

What the Pro-Choice Movement Can Learn From Those Who Overturned “Roe” Amy Littlefield

What the Pro-Choice Movement Can Learn From Those Who Overturned “Roe”

How the Abortion Rights Activists Found Their Radical Imagination Amy Littlefield

How the Abortion Rights Activists Found Their Radical........

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