Bodies Under Siege

How the Far–Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global

Sian Norris

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781839764738
• eBook ISBN:
  9781839764783
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Social Sciences

Think today's anti-abortion ideas are rooted in religious prohibitions or arguments about where life begins? Wrong: today's anti-abortion movements is largely financed and planned by far-right extremists. Many of them are avowedly fascist and white supremacist, afraid of a "great replacement" of the world's white population by other races, who are working hard to reshape governments and policies across Europe, North America and around the world. Much of this far-right organizing and funding network, however, has been overlooked by today's feminist and left movements.

As investigative journalist Sian Norris uncovers here, it is through attacking abortion rights that fascist ideas from the dark web, incel chat boards, and fringe organizations comes to enter mainstream debate -- and to then shape governmental policy across Europe, from authoritarian regimes like Hungary's to liberal democracies like Britain. As Norris goes undercover at anti-abortion activist meetings, and pieces together the money trail linking American think tanks to far-right fascist groups, she maps out the pipeline by which fascism has become respectable across the Global North by taking away women's reproductive rights and autonomy.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• The Essential Eight Principles
• Contents
• A Note on Language
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. The Ideology: The Place of Women in Fascist Thought
• 2. The Extremists: The Anti-Abortion Far Right
• 3. The Infiltration: The Networks that Bring Extremist Right Politics into the Mainstream
• 4. The Allies: How (Some) Women Join the Far Right – from Trad Wives to Anti-Trans Activism
• 5. The Money: Who Is Funding the Anti-Abortion Right?
• 6. The Politicians: How the Far Right Influences Governments around the World
• 7. The Tipping Point: Which Future Do We Choose?
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Index