The Lie That Binds

by Ilyse Hogue

Overview

Public support for the legal right to abortion in the United States is at an all-time high. Yet we're in the midst of an all-out assault on reproductive freedom, and Roe v. Wade is hanging on by a thread.

 

The Lie that Binds is the indispensable account of how the formerly non-partisan, back-burner issue of abortion rights was reinvented as the sharp point of the spear for a much larger reactionary movement bent on maintaining control in a changing world. Written by NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue with research by Ellie Langford, The Lie that Binds traces the evolution of some of the most dangerous and least understood forces in U.S. politics, offering an unflinchingly incisive analysis of the conservative political machinery designed to thwart social progress - all built around the foundational lie that their motivations are based in moral convictions about individual pregnancies.  

 

This book introduces the colorful cast of characters behind the Radical Right - from anti-ERA protestors to men's rights activists - and explains how conservative political operatives intentionally targeted abortion as a rallying cry for their followers as their other prejudices fell from favor. Abortion acted as a Trojan horse to move a deeply unpopular, regressive policy agenda.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947492516
Publisher:	Social Security Works Education Fund
Publication date:	07/22/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	835 KB

About the Author

When Ilyse Hogue took the helm of NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2013, she knew she had a challenge ahead of her. Anti-choice lawmakers in states across the country were implementing sweeping restrictions meant to legislate abortion access out of existence and it was clear that they wouldn't stop until they acheived their ultimate endgame of banning abortion completely. She got right to work, boldly pushing the national conversation around reproductive freedom and centering the ability to decide if, when, and how to raise a family as an issue fundamental to societal equity. Under her leadership, NARAL cemented its role as an organizing powerhouse-tripling its membership to 2.5 million people, advancing state and federal legislation to protect and expand abortion access, and fighting an unprecedented wave of abortion bans at the state level.

Ellie Langford is Research Director at NARAL Pro-Choice America, where her team works to understand the radical right's efforts to chip away at reproductive freedom in America and sound the alarm about their growing influence within the Trump administration. Ellie has a deep background in audience research, qualitative data analysis and message development, and has built and tested communications strategies for major nonprofits and foundations. She has also worked in opposition research and media criticism, monitoring extremist ideologies online and writing about misinformation and disinformation in the media.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Lie that Binds

"Ilyse Hogue provides a brilliant, systematic takedown of the extremist,

hypocritical forces that seek to control women's bodies. The Lie that Binds is a

clarion call for renewed American activism to protect a woman's right to

determine her own health care, including her right to abortion, at a time when

those rights are more at risk than at any point in the last 45 years."

Stacey Abrams, Founder & Chair, Fair Fight

"Hogue makes a powerful and disturbing contribution to the literature on historical

links between the domination of women and protecting white supremacy. The

'culture war'; the evangelical right mounted around abortion has it's origins as a

wedge issue to protect a privilege rooted in racial segregation. Women of color

and low income women are the most vulnerable to the abuses of both. It is an

important read that reminds us that the original sins of our founding will harm us

all until they are repented."

Maya Wiley, NBC News and MSNBC Legal Analyst

"This is a must read account of how the Radical Right's quest for domination

ultimately led to the country electing a race baiting, misogynist in Donald Trump.

Hogue unravels for the reader decades of careful machinations of a movement

hell bent on keeping women in their place and using abortion as a weapon to do

so. To all feminists who dream of overthrowing the patriarchy: start here."

Alyssa Mastromonaco, NYT Best Selling author and co-host of Crooked Media's #Hysteria podcast

"The Lie that Binds recounts the widely misunderstood history of the anti-abortion

movement;s origins with the right wing compulsion to resist social change and

instead strengthen the system of white male religious control. In this precarious

and eruptive American moment, it could not be more timely in its exploration of

fear, resentment, prejudice and the drive to cling to power in the face of righteous

fights for freedom."

Rebecca Traister, Author, Writer-at-large New York Magazine

"Hogue lays bare how far-right extremists have taken over our government all while

hiding in plain sight. This untold history details years of insidious schemes that enabled

a creeping right-wing corruption of our political system, court system, and information

systems and ultimately gave us a reality TV star in the White House. This book speaks

to the true endgame of the forces opposing reproductive freedom so that we know exactly how to arm ourselves and, ultimately, win our country back."

Joe Lockhart, CNN political analyst

"The Lie that Binds is an unflinching look at the true origins of the right wing obsession with keeping half of the population "in their place." From the very beginning, the purpose of anti-choice movement was to maintain and consolidate power in the hands of a few white men. Hogue sticks to the facts and lays out the only effective path forward. Fight like hell!"

Zerlina Maxwell, author of The End of White Politics; MSNBC Political Analyst, SiriusXM host

From the Publisher

★ 2020-08-06
Incisive look at the destructive path of anti-abortion ideology in the U.S.

Even though most Americans believe in a woman’s right to choose—“consistent research has shown that more than 7 in 10 Americans support legal access to abortion”—the radical right has succeeded in steadily eroding reproductive freedoms since Roe v. Wade. According to NARAL Pro-Choice America leaders Hogue and Langford, the campaign against abortion is but a means to an end for the architects of the pro-life movement. Their true aim is the uncontested dominion of White Christian men. The battle began in 1954, when Brown v. Board of Education struck down “state laws used by segregationists to maintain structural inequality in the nation’s schools.” In 1976, the IRS rescinded the tax-exempt status of the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s segregationist Bob Jones University. What has followed, argue the authors convincingly, is more than a half-century of machinations designed “to halt progressive cultural change and maintain power for a privileged minority.” Anti-abortion rhetoric is just a weapon, driven by design, propaganda, disinformation, and cowed Republican politicians—hallmarks of the Trump era. Hogue and Langdon make a strong case that the rises of Trump, fake news, and science skepticism are not flukes but rather the culmination of a dogged campaign by forces still smarting from desegregation and second- and third-wave feminism. The reproductive freedom of American women is the victim of an “anti-democratic power grab on a historic scale.” The authors build a chilling case that the startling 2019 wave of abortion bans across the nation should serve as a canary in the coal mine for citizens concerned with democracy and a catalyst for bolder messaging, better strategic planning, and sustained action to combat disinformation.

A cogent “horror story” about the plot to reanimate mid-20th-century White male supremacy at the expense of abortion access.

Kirkus Reviews