(RNS) — Investigative reporter Amy Littlefield loved Agatha Christie murder mysteries and especially the character Miss Marple, the older lady detective. So, in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the 50-year-old right to abortion, Littlefield put on her inner Miss Marple to investigate who was responsible for killing the law.
In her book, “Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights,” Littlefield interviewed some of the leading figures in the anti-abortion movement. She made no bones about her own views. She is a feminist, a fierce believer of the right to an abortion and an atheist. She is also the mother of two children.
She nonetheless scored interviews with people such as Paul Haring, who first approached Catholic bishops with the idea that would become the Hyde Amendment, the 1976 provision that prohibits Medicaid from paying for abortions for poor women. She interviewed Richard Viguerie, the pioneer of political direct mail and the “funding father” of conservative strategy; Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, which in 1987 began blockading the entrances to abortion clinics; and Mark Lee Dickson, the pastor who led the charge for “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinances.
Littlefield also interviewed leaders of the abortion rights movement to try to understand how they view their failure to stanch the anti-abortion forces. She paints poignant accounts of two women who died as a result of botched abortions, Rosie Jimenez and Becky Bell.
The book offers a sobering and compassionate critique of society’s failure to protect women — and especially poor women. RNS spoke to Littlefield, who lives in Boston, via Zoom. The interview was edited for length …
