Killers of Roe My investigation into the mysterious death of abortion rights

Nation correspondent Littlefield debuts with a quirky yet hard-hitting inquiry into the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A fan of murder mysteries, the author frames her narrative as a whodunit in search of perpetrators, with the victims being Roe itself as well as women who died from botched abortions due to the slow, 50-year chipping-away of reproductive rights via policies like parental consent laws and the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which prevented Medicaid coverage for abortion. The result is a captivating character study of an oddball bunch, among them retired IRS attorney Paul Haring, who first approached Catholic bishops with the idea that would become the Hyde Amendment, and disgraced congressman Bob Bauman, who encouraged "jovial ass grabber" Henry Hyde to sponsor the amendment. Littlefield's interviews with these individuals reveal their motivations--while some are political opportunists and others "identify strongly with the unwanted fetus," most seem to be "true believers" who see their efforts as a ticket to heaven. Littlefield strives to humanize her perps rather than portraying them as villains--because being human means they can be defeated, she notes--while also critiquing the failure of the pro--abortion rights movement to more rigorously challenge early anti-abortion policies, like Hyde, whose primary victims were the poor and disadvantaged. The result is a dogged pursual of those responsible for women's deaths. (Mar.)

Channeling Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, a journalist explores who killedRoe v. Wade. In a departure from most detective novels, the killers seem ready to talk. The setting: the years followingRoe (1973). The suspects: conservatives looking out for the "taxpayers" and ensuring their own chances of getting into heaven. There are activists, too, who intimidate and are violent toward patients and abortion providers, and those who keep the massive anti-abortion movement running. It's a mix of true believers, writes Littlefield, and they believe in a Catholic or evangelical Christian God and American notions of individual responsibility and choice. Despite the undercurrent of patriarchy, Littlefield makes every effort to find humanity in her interviewees, though she does not let them off the hook for their roles in the deaths of their victims. Two recurring figures represent the many women who suffered due to late-20th-century anti-abortion policies. The first is Rosie Jimenez, a 27-year-old mother who found herself without access to safe care when the 1976 Hyde Amendment cut Medicaid funding for abortions. The second is Becky Bell, a teenager who needed an abortion but couldn't bear to tell her parents. Both died after unsafe procedures. Laws that restricted federal funding and required parental consent became the "law of the land," accepted by leaders in the abortion rights movement and Democrats in Congress as perennial compromises. The existing tenuousness of abortion rights has been further exacerbated by state and local laws criminalizing abortion afterDobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), the Supreme Court decision that overturnedRoe. This deep investigation reveals the nuances of anti-abortion politics and strategy. It also reveals that the fight for abortion rights isn't over. An unresolved "murder mystery" doubles as a call to action. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.