Fighting for abortion rights in a sick democracy

Journalist Amanda Becker on how the struggle for reproductive freedom has continued post-Dobbs and why it will win

What does it mean to fight for abortion freedoms in a country that simply no longer guarantees — or even recognizes — reproductive rights?

Journalist Amanda Becker aims to answer that question in her new book, You Must Stand Up: The Fight for Abortion Rights in Post-Dobbs America. For the year following the Dobbs decision, Becker — who has covered D.C. for most of her two-decade career and is currently Washington correspondent for The 19th, the independent newsroom devoted to gender, politics, and policy — traveled the country, chronicling how activists, volunteer campaigners doctors and care providers, and others have changed their strategies to continue the fight for reproductive freedoms in a changed country.

We talked to Becker about her work reporting the book, how Dobbs has already reshaped American politics at the state level by focusing voter opposition to abortion bans, how Kamala Harris has managed to change Democratic language on abortion, why abortion could drive a broad political realignment in the decades ahead — and why that’s an integral part of the larger struggle to ensure the survival of democracy in the United States.

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So first, tell us about the origins of the book. One thing that has been very clear in your work is that reporting is a call to action and that the franchise — and democracy itself — is a work in progress. How does this project fit into that mission?

At The 19th, we talk and think a lot about what we call the “unfinished business” of voting rights — who has been left out of the franchise?  The 19th’s mission is to empower women and LGBTQ+ people with the information they need to be equal participants in our democracy. I view my book, You Must Stand Up, as an extension of that. It’s the stories of people across the country who care about an issue — in this case, abortion rights — and how they are engaging with our democratic processes and institutions to protect them or to restore them in places where they’ve been lost. 

You spent the year following Dobbs embedded with people on the ground, focusing on how doctors and staff at abortion clinics figured out how to provide care, how medical students defended their right to practice and learn, how campaigners worked to defend voting rights and run the efforts to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions. What stands out to you from those experiences?