The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America

The "Best and Most Current Primer" - The New York Times

"Searing and intimate... with masterly, white-hot reporting." – The New York Times

“The most important book in this election.” – Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC

“As Dias and Lerer write, the fight against legal abortion is tied inextricably to the fight for America’s soul.” – New York Magazine

“A tour de force. However you read books, hardcover, ebook, audio… Just read it.” – Alex Wagner on Alex Wagner Tonight

From two top New York Times journalists, the “searing and intimate” untold story of the plan to overturn Roe v. Wade and the consequences for women and abortion, charting the rise of this new America with “masterly white hot reporting."

In June 2022, Americans watched in shock as the Supreme Court reversed one of the nation’s landmark rulings. For nearly a half century, Roe was synonymous with women’s rights and freedoms. Then, suddenly, it was gone.

In their groundbreaking book The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer reveal the explosive inside story of how it happened. Their investigation charts the shocking political and religious campaign to take down abortion rights and remake American families, womanhood, and the nation itself. In doing so, Dias and Lerer go beyond the traditional political narrative into the most personal reaches of American life.

Reeling from Barack Obama's 2012 landslide presidential victory – and motivated by a spiritual mission – a small but determined network of elite conservative Christian lawyers and powerbrokers worked quietly and methodically to keep their true cause alive: ending abortion rights. Thinking in generational terms, they devised a strategic, top-down takeover at every level of political and legal life, from little-known anti-abortion lobbyists in far flung statehouses to the arbiters of the constitution at the highest court in the land. Broad swaths of liberal America did not register the severity of the threat until it was far too late. At a moment when women had more power than ever before, the feminist movement suffered one of the greatest political defeats in American history.

With stunning scope, journalistic rigor, and unprecedented access to the highest echelons of conservative and liberal power, Dias and Lerer chronicle the end of the Roe era. Their deeply human reporting stretches from inside abortion clinics to the halls of the White House, exposing powerful behind-the-scenes actors and recasting the actions of those already in the spotlight. The result is a sweeping and intimate narrative of secrets, power, jaw-dropping revelations, and a guide for affecting long term political change as we look to what’s ahead.