In ‘You Must Stand Up,’ Amanda Becker captures the scramble after Dobbs

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WASHINGTON — It was onerous to comply with all the things that occurred when the Supreme Court docket handed down its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group.

“Should you had been a physician in Louisiana attempting to maintain up, in simply over a month, abortion went from authorized, to unlawful, to authorized for now, to unlawful for now, to authorized once more for now, to unlawful pending the result of [an] underlying lawsuit,” writes Amanda Becker, a journalist with The nineteenth.

Becker presents an account of that chaotic time in her new guide, “You Should Stand Up: The Struggle for Abortion Rights in Submit-Dobbs America.” She shadows docs, activists and others across the nation as they navigate the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

“This can be a story that’s going to maintain going,” Becker stated, describing a “main political realignment.”

She joined the Political Theater podcast this month to speak about what she noticed on the bottom and the way abortion is shaping the present election cycle. This transcript has been edited and condensed. For the complete dialog, listen here.

Q: How did this guide come about?

A: Everybody who writes about abortion rights knew that Dobbs was coming. It was only a matter of time to see which case was going to be the one which overturned Roe.

And so I had began mentally making ready for that, as a result of I not solely thought it was going to be an enormous story by way of well being care and the court docket and civil rights, however doubtlessly the largest political story of my profession.

As we head into the primary presidential election with no Roe v. Wade in 50 years, we’re seeing that. We simply acquired some polling from New York Occasions/Siena Faculty displaying that abortion is beginning to overtake different prime points amongst voters in swing states. And for ladies beneath 45, it’s already a very powerful problem.

Q: You frolicked with an abortion clinic director in Alabama and a physician in Arizona. What was that like?

A: Dwelling in America proper now, you’re residing a really completely different life based mostly on the place you’re, and your actuality can change dramatically by way of the kind of well being care you may entry. And it’s not simply abortion — when there are abortion bans in place, there’s a cascading impact.

I knew that in that first 12 months, clinics and suppliers had been going to be attempting to care for folks in a state of affairs the place plenty of occasions they had been unsure even what sort of care they may present. I used to be simply very conscious that I didn’t need to be an added stress to them on prime of all the things else.

I began with the clinic in Tuscaloosa run by Robin Marty, and I needed to ask them a number of occasions earlier than she was like, “OK, you may come on down.” After which she stated, “It is advisable discuss to Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick,” so I went out to Phoenix. And I take into account these two settings and people two folks to essentially be the guts of the guide.

Q: The place else did you go?

A: I write about two ladies from Maryland who had been attempting to open an all-terms clinic, and there’s additionally a chapter in Massachusetts, a state the place the overwhelming majority of individuals help abortion rights, much more so than nationally. I needed to point out a spot the place folks on the native and state stage had been getting actually inventive about how one can shield abortion entry.

In Wisconsin, I adopted a medical scholar. How do you practice to be an OB-GYN in a state the place you’re prohibited from studying key elements of well being care? Individuals are inclined to observe within the areas the place they practice, and there are already maternal well being care deserts in Wisconsin.

And Kentucky is the opposite one which involves thoughts, the place I adopted on a regular basis voters in a purple state who had been campaigning in opposition to a poll measure. One among them had by no means finished any kind of door-knocking earlier than, and I needed to see what that felt like on the bottom, and what made them say, “I’ve had sufficient. I’m taking to the streets.”

Q: Each guide has a deadline, however how do you know when to cease reporting?

A: Within the afterword, I write about attempting to finish the guide: “How may I depart readers with essentially the most up-to-date data attainable as abortion entry continued to ebb and move throughout the nation, and any single court docket ruling or election may change all the things instantly?”

This can be a story that’s going to maintain going. It’s a narrative that I believe is popping into what might be a serious political realignment on this nation. , realignments are form of onerous to see if you’re at first of them, and it’s solely a lot later that students and political scientists look again and are like, “Oh, the good political realignment of no matter.”

I anticipate that the afterword for the paperback subsequent 12 months would be the election outcomes from this 12 months, and the way that modified issues.

Q: Plenty of abortion-related measures are on the poll this 12 months across the nation. Past these, what else are you watching? What about congressional races?

A: I completely am going to Arizona to cowl the Senate race between Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake, and I can be spending a while in Michigan.

I may doubtlessly get again to Wisconsin by November. There’s not solely the Senate race between Tammy Baldwin and Eric Hovde, however there’s additionally an OB-GYN [Kristin Lyerly] who’s working for the Home on the market in a district that has been purple, however getting much less purple.

There aren’t any ladies OB-GYNs in Congress proper now, and I’d love to speak to her. Why does a physician put apart their medical profession as a result of they really feel like they should run for workplace based mostly on defending the kind of well being care they had been skilled and have been offering to sufferers?

“ You Must Stand Up ” (Bloomsbury) is out Tuesday. Hear extra from Becker at Politics and Prose on Friday and at People’s Book on Sept. 19.

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