**Content warning: abortions and miscarriages
Xolo Score 5/5
Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America is a deeply researched and profoundly moving exploration of the harsh realities facing patients and healthcare providers in a post-Roe landscape. This state-by-state deep dive offers a humanized account of the impossible and dangerous dilemmas that arise when abortion access is restricted. As the reproductive health reporter for The 19th News, Shefali Luthra carefully platforms deeply personal interviews that are necessary for demonstrating the often life-threatening circumstances patients and healthcare providers across the country are enduring.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Luthra is careful to highlight how the historical erosion of abortion rights disproportionately impacts marginalized communities—particularly low-income patients, patients of color, undocumented patients, and transgender patients, especially if they live in states with stricter abortion bans. Through extensive personal stories, Luthra illustrates how these groups are often left with the fewest resources and the most significant barriers when trying to access reproductive healthcare, painting a sobering and upsetting picture of systemic inequality.
Luthra’s writing is empathetic and courageous. She doesn’t shy away from the emotional and physical toll that restrictive abortion laws can take, nor does she sensationalize these experiences. Instead, she offers a balanced perspective that underscores the urgency of the issues at hand while respecting the autonomy and dignity of those involved. Luthra contextualizes these stories with a historical timeline of abortion access between 1973 and the present day. Abortion healthcare was siloed and stigmatized from healthcare policy. Villainizing and prohibiting abortions can lead to patients seeking reproductive healthcare without their personal support networks, such as family, friends, and healthcare professionals. Sometimes, patients make costly and dangerous decisions in these moments of isolation and desperation.
While Undue Burden is undoubtedly a critical examination of the current state of reproductive rights in the United States, it is also a call to action. Luthra emphasizes the importance of continued advocacy, community support, and legal protections to safeguard the remaining rights and fight for those lost. As well as emphasize the instrumental support state and national abortion funds provide patients during a stressful and confusing time. The book leaves readers with a sense of the gravity of the situation and the continuous warning signs of an already collapsing system to equip ourselves better in preserving bodily autonomy.
Undue Burden challenges readers to confront the hostile realities of life in a post-Roe America and to consider the far-reaching consequences of these decisions.
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​ | To what extent are there BIPOC perspectives in their analysis? | ​How well does the author avoid writing BIPOC experiences through the white gaze? | To what extent does the author challenge white-centered beliefs? | How well does the book explore nuances between intersectional identities? |
Score | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
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