20 MOTHER JONES |^ SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019

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Millions of women are already living in the post-Roe world.

Abortion rights activists are preparing for whatever’s next.

by nina liss-schultz illustrations by noma bar

when lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri,

Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky passed

legislation this year effectively ending all or most abor-

tions in their states, it seemed to confirm what many

Americans, pro-choice and anti-abortion alike, have

long anticipated: The post-Roe era is coming. What

would that new landscape look like? For those who

protested the new laws with red cloaks and coat hangers,

it’s a nightmarish mashup of the dystopian novel The

Handmaid’s Tale and the bad old days of back-alley abor-

tions. Meanwhile, the president of Americans United

for Life scoffs at such “ominous warnings,” insisting

that “women can, and will, flourish in a society that

does not constitutionalize abortion on demand.”

This moment has been a long time coming, the result

of a steadily building backlash against choice. Roe v. Wade

was decided on January 22, 1973; the effort to undo it began

soon after with a proposed constitutional amendment

declaring the fetus a person. Since then, states have en-

acted more than 1,200 restrictions on abortion—more

than a third of them since 2010—casting them as measures

to protect women’s health, parental rights, or religious

freedom. President Donald Trump’s appointments to the

Supreme Court have provided an opening for anti-choice

activists to solidify these gains and strike directly at Roe

through a favorable ruling on an anti-abortion statute.

What all this means is we don’t have to do much

speculating about what a post-Roe world would look