Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
Starred review from August 12, 2024
Valenti (Sex Objects) draws on her post-Roe-era newsletter Abortion, Every Day—where she has been “tracking every ban, court case, and anti-abortion strategy” in the U.S.—to create this clarifying and incandescent affirmation of not only the importance of abortion rights but their status as a winning issue at the ballot box. Aiming to “arm the choir” with facts and figures to counter right-wing talking points and encourage Democrats to “get out of defensive crouch” on the issue, Valenti marshals persuasive evidence that Americans are overwhelmingly pro-abortion (“following the fall of Roe... abortion rights won every single time” they were put to the ballot, “even in states like Kansas and Kentucky”). Her close observations of nationwide developments also give her keen insight into slippery Republican election strategies: Valenti describes how opponents of recent Michigan and Ohio ballot measures ensuring children could get abortions without parental consent, having realized abortion restriction was unpopular, instead deployed irrelevant anti-trans ads, hoping to find another means to stoke parental fears of losing the ability to control their children’s bodies. She points out that children seem to be the “canary in the coalmine” for abortion rights, as kids’ access to abortion is being tightened around the country (“In Florida in 2022... judges were approving fewer abortions for teens. One young woman was told... poor grades were proof that she wasn’t mature enough”). This is a critical resource for the coming election season.