Undue Burden
Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America
On behalf of: Kathy Robbins - The Robbins Office, Inc.
An urgent and intimate investigation into the lives of patients seeking abortions in America after the fall of Roe v. Wade, and the economic, emotional, and life-threatening consequences of being denied reproductive freedom.
On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and suddenly the right to end a pregnancy in the U.S.—a right at least as old as the country itself—was no longer guaranteed. By the beginning of 2023, abortion was virtually unavailable or significantly restricted in 20 states. Sixty-six clinics have stopped providing abortions, and 26 have closed completely. The U.S. has become the rare country to be going backwards; while other nations are largely expanding legal abortion access, the bans being enforced in many states are among some of the most severe in the entire world.
In Undue Burden, reporter Shefali Luthra traces the unforgettable stories of patients faced with one of the most personal decisions of their lives. Outside of Houston, there’s a 16-year-old girl who becomes pregnant well before she intends to, and is unable to get the abortion she so desperately wants. A 21-year-old mother struggling make ends meet has to travel hundreds of miles in secret to access care in another state. A 42-year-old woman with a life-threatening condition wants nothing more than to safely carry her pregnancy to term, but her home state’s abortion bans fail to provide her with the options she’d need to make an informed decision. And a 19-year-old trans man struggles to access care in Florida as abortion bans radiate across the American South.
Before, it may have been easy for some to believe the misconception that abortion restrictions affected only other people living in certain states; now, patients forced to travel to access care creates an overwhelmed system and a domino effect across the entire country. As the landscape of abortion rights continues to shift, the experiences of these patients — those who had to cross state lines to seek life-saving care, who risked everything they had in pursuit of their own bodily autonomy, and who were unable to plan their reproductive future in the way that they deserved—illustrates how the end of Roe has drastically reshaped the lives of all Americans. Through the perspectives of patients, providers, activists, and lawmakers, Undue Burden is a revelatory portrait of human rights, healthcare, and economic and racial inequality in post-Roe America.
Reviews
“Journalist Luthra debuts with an eye-opening and chilling look at the strain the U.S. reproductive healthcare system is undergoing in a ‘post-Roe’ world…Luthra’s vivid and compassionate storytelling unveils an interconnected web of desperate individuals and heroic helpers who are only just barely within reach. It’s an urgent wake-up call.”— Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Vivid portrayals of lives disrupted and freedom denied.” — Kirkus Reviews
“In her empathetic book, Luthra capably zooms in on private stories and zooms out on the laws that have irrevocably changed lives, proving the feminist adage: The personal is political. Undue Burden is a rigorous and compelling condemnation of the unnecessary pain and sorrow Dobbs left in its wake.” — BookPage, starred review
“[A] superbly reported account of the past two years. Grounded in conversations with a diverse range of people across the United States, ‘Undue Burden’ showcases Luthra’s expertise in covering health-care policy and abortion rights.” — The Washington Post