Commentaries from the New York Review of Books

Last week a leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gave a preview of the Supreme Court’s likely decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This is the first part in a series of short responses to the ruling.

Liza Batkin
Deceit in Plain Sight

“Justice Alito’s draft opinion is a power grab, steeped in the language of conservative and religious antiabortion advocates.”

Christine Henneberg
Aspirations

“As an abortion provider, what I give my patients is not just a procedure but the space to make their own decisions about their bodies.”

Clair Wills
A Lesson from Ireland

“Decades of forced birth and coerced adoption convinced the Irish people to lift a state ban on abortion. Will Americans learn the hard way, too?”

Anne Enright
A Cruel Vote

“Can you imagine what it is like to put your mark on a paper ballot that asks you to tease out the issue of a raped child’s inconvenient ability to end her own life?”

Rachel Pearson
Intentions

“For medical practitioners in Texas, even an imagined act can be illegal.”

Charlotte Shane
‘Can You Describe This?’

“Every week that I handle calls on the abortion fund’s hotline is a week spent confronting the mundanity of the struggle for dignity.”

Annette Gordon-Reed
Uprooting Rights

“The draft opinion looks back longingly to a nineteenth-century understanding of who was in control and whose lives mattered.”