We must not dismiss this as dystopian fiction, as "The Handmaid's Tale."
There have been many inflection points in the battle over American abortion rights — legal decisions, envelope-pushing state laws and, of course, last week's shocking leak of the Supreme Court's draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade. |
Back in the summer of 2018, there was one such moment that made me especially aware of Roe's fragility: the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy during Donald Trump's presidency. It was the moment that resulted in a Supreme Court with enough votes to do significant damage to the 1973 precedent, if not to overturn it entirely. |
Alongside colleagues on the editorial board, which I also ran at the time, I set out to discover what lay ahead for American women if such a reality were to come to pass. The result was a deeply reported eight-part series that documented how, because of arcane laws and rogue prosecutors, women were being prosecuted for not only abortions but also miscarriages and other heartbreaking circumstances. The women we reported on in our series needed help, like medical assistance and addiction care, and too often, they got tied up in the criminal justice system instead. The results were often tragic — for them, their families and their broader communities. |
"It might be tempting to dismiss this vision as dystopian fiction — as a version of 'The Handmaid's Tale' — if it weren't already taking shape in states across the country," the editorial board wrote in 2018. |
I've been reflecting on that series, and the alarming things we uncovered in it, over the past week. At the time, such cases were rare. Now that Roe seems likely to soon be overturned — while Louisiana lawmakers consider a bill that would allow women who have abortions to be charged with murder — I see what we reported on several years ago as an even more urgent crisis. The vision may have been taking shape then, but it is coming into focus now. |
I hope that the series, and all of our coverage of reproductive rights since — arguing for and against abortion rights and grappling with the gray areas in between — can help you make sense of this moment. It is a remarkable one, indeed. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
| More on the Overturning of Roe v. Wade | | | | | | |
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