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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America

The Complete Guide to Abortion Legality, Access, and Practical Support

by Robin Marty

Book cover for The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America
Book cover for The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America

Get the health care you need — by any means necessary.

Featuring a new introduction by Amanda Palmer

 

The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America is a comprehensive and user-friendly manual for understanding and navigating recent cataclysmic changes to reproductive rights law, to help you get the health care you need— by any means necessary. Activist and writer Robin Marty guides readers through a post-Roe America, offers waying to fight back, including: how to acquire financial support, how to use existing networks and create new ones, and how to, when required, work outside existing legal systems. She details how to plan for your own emergencies, how to start organizing, what to know about self-managed abortion care with pills and/or herbs, and how to avoid surveillance. The only guidebook of its kind, The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America includes new chapters that cover the needs and tools available for pregnant people across the country.

This second edition features extensively updated information on abortion legality and access in the United States, and approximately one hundred pages of new content, covering such topics as independent alternatives to Planned Parenthood, "auntie networks," taxpayer-funded abortions, and using social media wisely in the age of surveillance.
 

Book cover for The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America
Book cover for The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America

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“The future without Roe is coming straight at us. This is the roadmap you need for the tough times ahead.”

“This isn’t The Handmaid’s Tale, this is real life. In Handbook for a Post-Roe America, Robin Marty outlines the grim possibilities of President Trump’s conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court, positing, 'When we say abortion will be illegal in half the states in the nation, we are no longer talking about some hypothetical future—we are talking about just years down the road.' In chapters such as 'Planning For Your Own Emergencies' and 'So, You Want to be the Next Jane,'Handbook is a clear-eyed guide to protecting access and providing support—with or without the government’s consent.”

“In her new book Handbook for a Post-Roe America, Robin Marty provides a blueprint for accessing reproductive healthcare and fighting for your rights in a country where abortion has become a crime.”

“Activist and writer Robin Marty breaks it down by walking readers through worst-case scenarios of a post-Roe America, and offering individualized, pragmatic paths to join the fight no matter what you’re working with. Marty doesn’t shy away from topics like self-managed abortion care, and how to avoid surveillance if you or someone you know is accessing abortion outside of federal regulation. The book includes an extensive resource guide with clinics, action groups, abortion funds, and practical support groups in each state.”

“Our present dystopian truth is scarier than fiction. Marty’s timely book empowers readers with the wide-reaching wisdom and practical guidance needed to govern and care for ourselves (and each other) in the midst of uncertainty. Marty anchors us with tools and resources that help light our way back to freedom as we navigate through the shadows of attacks on reproductive justice.”

Handbook for a Post-Roe America is the survival guide American women will need to carry around like a Bible if we’ll ever survive the GOP’s rigid rule over US—er, the US. This book has everything a pro-choice woman needs to know about Roe, including what’ll make it go away, how to resist, and what to do if she gets pregnant while abortion’s either completely or nearly illegal in the States.”

“Robin [Marty] has been the writer I turn to for accurate, practical, and optimism-free information about reproductive rights since I started working in the field. She was the first person I asked to spell out the future for abortion after the 2016 election, and now she's done it again in generous detail for all of us. Are you a person who may become pregnant, or do you maybe know a person who fits that description? This book is essential for anyone looking to understand and navigate a world without legal abortion.”

“As crucial as the practical advice is, the most valuable thing Handbook offers may be the simple reassurance that you can do something. At a time when proponents of abortion rights feel frightened and overwhelmed, Marty reminds readers that this struggle is not new, and precedents for facing it exist ... [Handbook for a Post-Roe America is] an indispensable response to a looming threat, offering everything from model legislation to instructions on protecting your privacy in the event of an extralegal abortion.”

“In Handbook for a Post-Roe America, Marty walks readers through the various futures of abortion rights in the U.S. and provides advice on how to plan ahead.”

“An essential tool to contend with the Court’s possible overturning—if not further restricting—of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.”

Handbook is a road map toward an uncertain future, offering not only proactive measures that advocates can take to protect abortion access, but also insight into how to stay on the offensive when it comes to anti-choicers. Marty’s extensive background on the topic makes this book a critical read for anyone new to abortion politics; those who have been in the fight, meanwhile, will find specifics and helpful tools to share with other advocates. Whether it’s figuring out how to protect ourselves online, or navigating what kind of reactive activism is most productive (spoiler: it’s not counterprotesting at clinics), readers will find an accessible guide for all abortion-advocacy levels.”

“Invaluable information useful both for an individual woman seeking an abortion and for those seeking to politically organize and fight the injustices of the anti-abortionists. Marty provides information ranging from the current legal situation women face in each state as well as about how to secure a medical abortion and commercially-available abortion-inducing pills and herbs, if needed. She even includes a working budget of the costs associated with an out-of-state medical procedure so a woman can financially plan for it.”

“A useful guide, complete with contact information of helpful organizations across the country and even how to self-induce abortion in your own home.”

“If to be forewarned is to be forearmed, Robin Marty’s Handbook for a Post-Roe America is an essential tool for anyone worried about losing access to abortion in the US of A. Practical and straightforward, the book outlines numerous what-ifs. And while it highlights a worst-case scenario in which the Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade, taking away the constitutional right to abortion, it also makes clear that this will not stop the practice. This fact-of-life makes the Handbook a somewhat grim read. At the same time, it’s also a thoughtful call to action.”

“This book is very practical, and, unfortunately, absolutely necessary. It’s a comprehensive manual for how to get the care you need, including how to find financial support, create and use networks, plan for emergencies, find care outside legal systems, and more. It has information on resources and opportunities for involvement in each state. It’s an essential resource.”

“A necessary primer on organizing, fundraising, and avoiding legal trouble when and if you must break an unconstitutional law.”

“Robin Marty is a leading writer and advocate who has spent a decade reporting on abortion in the U.S., and the practical support her book offers is unmatched. This resource guide covers the likely state-by-state legal landscape if Roe is overturned, how to prevent a pregnancy, how to self-manage your own abortion, direct actions you can take to support access to care, and much more.”

blog — January 20

Roe v. Wade at 50: Download a free copy of The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America

“The overturning of Roe is the perfect time for every supporter of abortion rights to examine their own commitment to the cause and to discover how they, too, can meet this moment. … Thinking local will be key in a post-Roe environment in which more than ever access to abortion is determined by one’s geography.”

—Robin Marty, author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America, for New York Times Opinion

get the healthcare you need — by any means necessary


January 22, 2023 marks fifty years since the passage of the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade (1973), and seven months since it was unceremoniously overturned by our current Supreme Court justices. In the months since the Court declared that the federal government cannot mandate states to allow pregnant people to end their pregnancies, we have grappled with the consequences of this decision, strengthening existing abortion networks and funds and establishing new ones to help serve the now-significant portion of the US population that doesn’t have direct access to abortion.

In a recent interview with Truthout, Handbook for a Post-Roe America author Robin Marty stressed the importance of sharing information about self-managed abortion whenever possible. Marty says, “Technology is the biggest way of pushing it: websites, emails, Twitter, all of these electronic disseminations.” However, these methods of accessing information are not available to everyone, particularly those without reliable internet access or those who fear reprisal should a family member or partner gain access to their search history. “We need to make this easy,” Marty said. “There’s an easy way for people to be able to access medication. There’s an easy way for people to be able to perform their own abortions. This is not difficult. And the fact that the government is blocking them from it, that is cruelty. It’s nothing short of cruelty.”

That’s why we’re making DRM-free (easily shareable) copies of The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America available to download for free from our website through Monday, January 23rd. Download a copy for yourself or send it to a friend, family member, or anyone else who might one day need to terminate a pregnancy.

The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America is a comprehensive and user-friendly manual for understanding and navigating recent cataclysmic changes to reproductive rights law, to help you get the health care you need — by any means necessary. Activist and writer Robin Marty guides readers through a post-Roe America, offers waying to fight back, including: how to acquire financial support, how to use existing networks and create new ones, and how to, when required, work outside existing legal systems. She details how to plan for your own emergencies, how to start organizing, what to know about self-managed abortion care with pills and/or herbs, and how to avoid surveillance. The only guidebook of its kind, The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America includes new chapters that cover the needs and tools available for pregnant people across the country.

This second edition features extensively updated information on abortion legality and access in the United States, and approximately one hundred pages of new content, covering such topics as independent alternatives to Planned Parenthood, "auntie networks," taxpayer-funded abortions, and using social media wisely in the age of surveillance.

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WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 

Now a major motion picture directed by Audrey Diwan

Translated by Tanya Leslie

In 1963, Annie Ernaux, 23 and unattached, realizes she is pregnant. Shame arises in her like a plague: Understanding that her pregnancy will mark her and her family as social failures, she knows she cannot keep that child.

This is the story, written forty years later, of a trauma Ernaux never overcame. In a France where abortion was illegal, she attempted, in vain, to self-administer the abortion with a knitting needle. Fearful and desperate, she finally located an abortionist, and ends up in a hospital emergency ward where she nearly dies.

In Happening, Ernaux sifts through her memories and her journal entries dating from those days. Clearly, cleanly, she gleans the meanings of her experience.

Inextricably connected to issues of autonomy, privacy, and sexuality, the abortion debate remains home base for the culture wars in America. Yet, there is more common ground than meets the eye in favor of choice. Sarah Erdreich’s Generation Roe delves into phenomena such as "abortion-recovery counseling," "crisis pregnancy centers," and the infamous anti-choice "black children are an endangered species" billboards. It tells the stories of those who risk their lives to pursue careers in this stigmatized field. And it outlines the outrageous legislative battles that are being waged against abortion rights all over the country. With an inspiring spirit and a forward-looking approach, Erdreich holds abortion up, unabashedly, as a moral and fundamental human right.  

Edited by Barbara Seaman and Laura Eldridge

Science journalist Barbara Seaman (1935-2008) spent the last forty years of her life on the front lines as a women's health advocate. Throughout her career, she was also a tireless supporter of other women's voices. Here she brings together an essential collection of essays, interviews, and commentary by leading activists, writers, doctors, and sociologists on topics ranging across reproductive rights, sex and orgasm, activism, motherhood and birth control. The more than two hundred contributors include Jennifer Baumgardner, Susan Brownmiller, Phyllis Chesler, Angela Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich, Germaine Greer, Shulamith Firestone, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Erica Jong, Molly Haskell, Shere Hite, Susie Orbach, Judith Rossner, Alix Kates Shulman, Gloria Steinem, Sojourner Truth, Rebecca Walker, Naomi Wolf, and many others.

Robin Marty

ROBIN MARTY is the executive director of the West Alabama Women’s Center—formerly the largest abortion provider in Alabama and now a free and sliding-scale reproductive and sexual health center for those who are uninsured and under-insured. Before moving to Tuscaloosa, she was a freelance reporter who spent a decade tracking abortion restrictions, visiting current and former clinic sites, and interviewing activists on both sides of the abortion divide. 

Photograph: Charity Rachelle/The Guardian