By Marissa Wright / PRISM
A few days after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that rescinded the constitutional right to abortion, journalist Rebecca Traister explained the need for abortion stories: “Without people who have had abortions describing their realities,” she wrote, “the empty space has been filled by punitive, anti-abortion storytelling—at the center of which is the imagined character of the fetus and its ‘personhood.’”
Fourth-wave feminists have tried to make up for the failures of second- and third-wave feminists by highlighting the spectrum of different abortion experiences through the #ShoutYourAbortion campaign and organizations like We Testify that train abortion storytellers. Still, many in the media largely failed to understand abortion as a lynchpin in American lives and politics.
Shefali Luthra’s new book, “Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in a Post-RoeAmerica,” works to cure that error. Luthra, a reporter covering gender and health care for The 19th, showcases stories from patients across identities and geographies who have been affected by abortion restrictions and bans, bringing the devastating consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wadeto the fore.
In this interview with Prism, Luthra spoke about reporting on abortion stories, the impacts of post-Dobbs abortion restrictions, and the meaning of this moment. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Marisa Wright: In a previous interview, you said it was important to focus your reporting on the people actually impacted by Dobbs and abortion policies, which also captures the ethos of your book. Why is that so important to you?
Shefali Luthra: I think this is an issue that people hear so much about from a politics standpoint. Many of them, especially before the Dobbs decisions, viewed it in more abstract terms, so it didn’t necessarily resonate with folks who don’t think about this all the time. For me, telling the stories of people affected by these laws is a way to illustrate in visceral terms why these laws matter—and to also help people understand how much this really could be any one of us. There are differences along race, class, and gender, but there are consistent themes across the board.
Wright: In the book’s introduction, you write, “With Roe v. Wade gone, this [pre-Roe] history matters all the more.” This book reads like an effort to take up the mantle of those who fought to tell the stories of what living in a pre-Roe America was like now that we are in a different world. Was that part of the motivation for this book?
Luthra: I love that framing. I don’t know that I thought about that out loud, but as you say, it does feel like it’s an implicit goal. We are living through a moment that is really extraordinary. Recording these stories gets at something that is really true and will always be true, which is that people’s lives were dramatically reshaped by what happened. We deserve to remember that because that is our history. When we see similar themes in these stories—despite where they live, who they are, their race, gender, income, all of that—it explains why we should be recording all of this. Because there will be more cases like this in the future, and they deserve attention.
Wright: You write with incredible detail from abortion providers, medical experts, and patients. How did you report on all the stories you shared in this book?
Luthra: This book came to me as a concept before the Dobbs decision. For me, it was really important to travel the country to see how access changed in different states with different politics and to talk to as many providers and patients in as many states as I could. I read this book called “Sick,” by Jonathan Cohn, and he does a phenomenal job describing what it was like to have pre-[Affordable Care Act] insurance. It focuses on different families, and I thought the state-by-state structure was so smart for this particular context. I made this list thinking about the places that can help us understand the bigger picture themes of “blue America,” “red America,” and the places that are still on the precipice of changing to illustrate just how potent and long-reaching this is.
Wright: One especially striking part of your book is the section called “The Safe Haven Myth,” in which you describe how bans passed on one side of the country “radiated hundreds of miles away,” including to states like Illinois, Colorado, and California. Can you talk about that impact and why people in so-called haven states should avoid complacency?
Luthra: This was a really important section of the book for me. The reproductive health care infrastructure in America has never been well resourced and has always been this fragmented shoestring network of providers and clinics. And then you throw in a bunch of states outlawing [abortion]—the math is quite straightforward. People travel, wait times grow longer, and [abortions] get delayed. Even if your rights have not changed, your access will because people go to abortion clinics not only for abortions; they go there for contraception, pap smears, and cancer screening. Providers have finite time, and they are facing much larger workloads and burdens than they’ve ever had to.
Wright: Describing how abortion has typically been covered, you write, “There have been efforts to speak about abortion in only the starkest terms … This book is an effort to correct that narrative.” Your prose reads as non-argumentative and embraces complexity. How did you accomplish these goals in the writing process?
Luthra: I think the facts speak for themselves. When you’re a reporter, you are always deciding what news has significance and what stories you are emphasizing. For me, it was really important that there was a character whose abortion was not because of the life-threatening conditions that we hear so much about. Those cases are very important, don’t get me wrong. But most abortions happen because you are already a parent and you can’t afford another child, or you don’t want to be a parent. It was really important for me that one of the main characters in the book be trans because people so often talk about abortion as an issue that only affects women. And that’s not true. But there’s no need to persuade people of that when you can simply show them that these are real cases that matter and are important.
Wright: What have you taken away from reporting and writing this book?
Luthra: I think no matter where you live, the overturn of Roe v. Wade matters to you. If it has not changed your life, it will change your life. Abortion is really ubiquitous. It is very personal. Everyone I interviewed about their experience with abortion said it was a very meaningful decision for them. I hope that people take away from this book that the undoing of abortion rights has had really drastic health consequences. It has had a widespread impact that we will feel for decades, and it creates a world in which there are many people who very understandably feel as if they are not treated as full and equal citizens.
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