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When the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization - overturning the constitutional right to abortion care - the country was thrown into chaos. Abortion providers and their patients faced sudden closures, new restrictions, and rapidly changing rules as nearly half of the states moved quickly to ban or severely curtail abortion access. Against this backdrop, an army of health care providers, lawyers, activists and everyday people mobilized to protect what a majority of Americans want: legal abortion.
In You Must Stand Up, Nieman Fellow Amanda Becker provides a real-time portrait of the creative resistance that unfolded in America's first year without the protections of Roe v. Wade. At a moment when healthcare access shifts daily, new legal battles are argued before partisan courts, and state constitutions are re-interpreted or amended, Becker traces the story of the people rising to meet these new challenges - doctors and staffers turning to new financial and medical models to remain open and provide abortions, volunteers campaigning against anti-abortion ballot initiatives, and medical students fighting to learn to provide what can be life-saving care.
By depicting the splintered reality of post-Dobbs America, and by capturing how the decision fuelled Americans to think in new ways about how to best protect their constitutional rights, Becker ultimately shows how outrage can beget hope, and give rise to a new movement.
