After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion Audiobook

How hard-working individuals have kept abortion afloat in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s destruction, and the continued help needed if we want to sustain it

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, many feared it meant the end of abortion access in the United States. Yet the courageous work of people on the ground has allowed abortion to survive post-Dobbs in ways that no one predicted.

In After Dobbs, law professor David S. Cohen and sociologist Carole Joffe interview 24 people across all different fields in abortion and in different state political environments to uncover how the abortion providing community and its allies prepared for, and then responded to this momentous event. Taking place across three intervals throughout 2022—pre-Dobbs in early 2022, right after Dobbs, and then six months later—these interviews showcase how nimble thinking on the part of providers, growth and new delivery models of abortion pills, and the never-ending work of those who help with abortion travel and funding have ensured most people who want them are still getting abortions, even without Roe.

But, as much as this is cause for celebration, the work required to make abortion possible is difficult and costly—in time, money, and emotion. There may soon come a time when the overturning of Roe means a much more severe decline in the number of people able to obtain the abortions they seek. But because of the work of the people in this book and those like them, even though Roe is dead, abortion is not . . . yet.

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"The demise of Roe v. Wade did not in fact end abortion care in America, and as Cohen and Joffe detail, it didn’t end compassionate, creative, and heroic hacks and workarounds from a small army of organizers, providers, clinic owners, and website wizards who ensured that for every injunction, lawsuit, bully, and threat, a dozen opportunities for better care would flourish. After Dobbs introduces us to the purveyors of hope and the believers in luck who refused to allow the Supreme Court to turn the lights off on American women and their healthcare. Read it and take heart; we have not yet begun to fight."

— Dahlia Lithwick, author of Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America