From the Clinics to the Capitol

An NPR Book of the Day

"An extremely important work that sheds light on the current status... of the antiabortion movement and its relationship to other right-wing movements in ways no other work does. This is brilliant."-Carole Joffe, coauthor of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion

From the Clinics to the Capitol breaks down the political strategy of the anti-abortion movement and the ties between the movement and white nationalism.

Antiabortion stories, images, and policies have primed Americans to embrace attitudes and politics once deemed extreme. Abroad, US antiabortion tactics, personnel, and funds have contributed to a global rise of the Right.

This book is a scholar's story of why and how abortion foes join other militants in waging war against the federal government. Reflecting on her thirty years of analyzing the intersections of race, reproduction, and right-wing movements, Carol Mason examines primary antiabortion sources that influenced political currents of the last fifty years. From Cold War conspiracism and apocalyptic fundamentalism to anti-statist terrorism, Tea Party populism, and MAGA insurrection, opposing abortion has come to imperil democracy worldwide.