Shefali Luthra on the ‘Undue Burden’ of Post-Roe Reproductive Care

KQED's Forum

“It’s difficult to think of a public health crisis more inevitable than the impending end of Roe v. Wade,” writes journalist Shefali Luthra, “and yet, on June 24, 2022, the country was profoundly unprepared.” Luthra argues that we’re now in the midst of that public health crisis, as millions of Americans seeking abortions face overwhelming obstacles to care, and as abortion providers reach a “breaking point to attempt to meet demand.” Luthra’s new book “Undue Burden” chronicles what she calls the human stories of abortion access — the patients with medically complex pregnancies who spend life savings on out-of-state care, the doctors who work under fear of legal reprisal and the lawmakers who struggle to respond. We talk to Luthra about the personal and systemic impacts of the loss of the constitutional right to abortion, nearly two years after Dobbs.