A new book diagnoses why Roe fell

NY Times writers Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer draw on lengthy journalistic experience to tell story

A new book provides one of the first accounts of why and how the country lost abortion rights as a constitutional guarantee.

Renowned authors Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer, esteemed for their work in the New York Times, penned The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America, published this month. While I commend the authors for certain editorial decisions, I disagree with some of their conclusions about the decline of the reproductive rights movement. 

The book delves into Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson's controversial decision to disavow Margaret Sanger’s legacy. Authors Dias and Lerer provide a balanced historical context about Sanger’s work in the Black community and the complex relationship between her views on eugenics and white supremacy. They also delve into Johnson's personal background that led to her decision. 

Even among black feminist writers, there is widespread disagreement on how to handle Margaret Sanger’s legacy. Loretta Ross was quoted in the book as saying she wanted more complicated and nuanced portraits that weren’t simple condemnations of Sanger. I’ve written about other prominent black writers who’ve said the same thing, including Dorothy Roberts, author of the seminal Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty. 

Johnson wrote in a New York Times editorial that Margaret Sanger was the godmother of Karen, which is a derisive term that originated from a Reddit user’s rant about his ex-wife, Karen. It became popularized among black men to refer to white women they felt had been unreasonably irritable. 

Johnson had long pushed for more inclusive approaches from Planned Parenthood, and the decision to do it was an embrace and belief that describing Sanger that way would help improve perceptions of the organization among the Black community. However, shortly after that, Kanye West went on a widely publicized media tour that condemned Margaret Sanger, condoned Alex Jones conspiracies, praised Adolf Hitler, and culminated with him sharing a swastika online with his 31 million Twitter followers. West later apologized for it and said he had favorable views of some Jews in Hollywood, including Seth Rogan. 

Many historians and journalists who disagreed with Johnson’s decision, including myself, felt the organization had set itself up to be incapable of defending itself in a situation like that. I just had a conversation with an abortion provider in which both of us lamented the historical illiteracy of young men and women. They have no understanding of Margaret Sanger. And so, any major emphasis decision will become the defining perception for many people. 

In this publishing environment, it’s courageous to criticize someone as powerful as the Planned Parenthood president when you’re writing about reproductive rights from a pro-choice perspective. That often means you lose access to them insofar as getting interviews. Criticism of influential figures is essential because it helps inform future decision-making. 

To her credit, Johnson has empowered local movements and leaders as president of the organization. That decision is, in part, why the abortion rights movement has gained as much power as it has. She’s trusted grassroots activists, many of whom were black women who had been condescended to by the traditionally white-woman-led feminist movement. Her legacy is as complicated as Sanger’s was. Hopefully, future historians capture that. 

The book is also of historical value because it records the perspectives of many of the most influential leaders, like Cecile Richards and Hillary Clinton, who is the most powerful woman in America and still carries an outsized influence within abortion politics, even as she and her husband have retired. 

I’ve praised both Bill and Hillary Clinton before. President Clinton arguably had the most significant administration from a policy standpoint of anyone in the last 50 years. He brought peace to Northern Ireland. He enacted the Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances Act. The economy boomed. Even things like the controversial NAFTA and his crime bill improved the country in some ways while bringing negative consequences that have been highlighted in recent years. However, they should have trusted local leaders and even higher-ups in reproductive politics to a greater degree. 

It’s helpful to fit abortion politics within the proper political context. One of the important people missing in this account is Gloria Feldt. She differed from leaders who came after her because she felt that it was a grassroots approach that leaders should take in advancing abortion access nationwide. The book improperly credits Richards as the one who first pushed Planned Parenthood into major political decision-making. It properly pays homage to Faye Wattleton. But it was Feldt who created the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. 

Richards is as important as any president who preceded her, except Sanger, who is the most important of all. She was tenacious in defending the organization from attacks during a controversy in which it was misrepresented by antiabortion activists who had filmed a meeting with an employee of Planned Parenthood. She held her ground during congressional testimony and was inspiring while doing it. 

The decision to centralize power within reproductive politics was met with criticism. It started with President Barack Obama, who wanted strict control of message-making. It continued with Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016. The party was built to win presidential elections, so the movement was in complete disarray when it failed to do that during Trump’s victory. 

Alexis McGill Johnson’s and other leaders' decisions to empower local activists gave politicians, including the Clintons and Obamas, more power. Hopefully, that trust will continue. 

One point I would make is that Planned Parenthood is not the only organization that matters, and its president isn’t the only star of the movement. There is a constellation of stars in it, and while hers might shine the brightest, others are just as important to study. 

The book delves into Leana Wen’s tumultuous and brief time as Planned Parenthood president when she emphasizes the organization’s medical component over political advocacy. 

The book properly talks about how antiabortion activists had long cared about the judiciary while liberal people seemed indifferent to it. The opposition movement realized the power of the legal system, which is what had granted abortion rights in the first place. That is the central reason for why Roe fell. 

It’s interesting which antiabortion activists the authors focused on—Marjorie Dannenfelser, who runs the conservative Susan B. Anthony List, and Federalist Society Chair Leonard Leo. 

I would argue that there were a lot more leaders who played a role in shifting abortion politics. The Christian Right, with leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and others, is not focused on to the same extent. 

The book is worth reading because it will help spark the search for why we lost those rights in the first place. That is critical to building a future movement that empowers women.