In From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary, Carol Mason, a professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Kentucky, draws a through line that connects both domestic and international anti-abortion activism to an ascendant network of white supremacist, Christian nationalist and authoritarian movements.
It’s a scary read, grounded in Mason’s three decades of attendance at rightwing events and perusal of scores of books, articles and pamphlets penned by anti-abortion conservatives. Her goal? To understand the ideology and motivating factors that have propelled the movement for the past half century.
The book, Mason tells readers in the introduction, is meant to highlight the ways race and reproduction intersect with rightwing America. “White nationalism has been making inroads in the American imagination under the guise of opposing abortion, which has worked in tandem with right-wing populism,” she explains.
Mason begins with recent history, outlining the ways that the most militant anti-choice organizations have moved further to the right, going from advocacy of legislation to restrict abortion access to “rescues” and violence — including the murder of abortion providers, clinic staff, and patient escorts and the literal destruction of brick-and-mortar health centers. In outlining the movement’s ideological shifts, From the Clinics to the Capitol goes from chilling to deeply terrifying.
Mason begins with recent history, outlining the ways that the most militant anti-choice organizations have moved further to the right.
Mason writes that fear of demographic change has been especially triggering for white antis who bristle at becoming a minority in the United States. Restricting immigration by people from Muslim countries and the global south fits squarely into the “keep America white” agenda, a belief system that is steeped in nationalist beliefs that have been stoked by wild projections that Western civilization, particularly Christianity, is facing extinction. This notion is central to the work done by the World Congress of Families (WCF).
In fact, one of the book’s most chilling sections describes growing anti-abortion sentiment, cheered on by the WCF, that is taking place in Russia. Archpriest Dimitri Smirnov, chair of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Matters and the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, is quoted telling the Russian people in 2017, “There is very little time left until the death of the entire Christian civilization.”
Mason notes that this “deployment of apocalyptic temporality” has been highly effective in boosting anti-abortion sentiment. The linchpin, of course, is racism: “The narrative asserts that demographic decline brought about by abortion will usher in a larger Muslim population. … The high birth rate among Muslims in Russia was spoken of with some awe, both as a threat and as something to emulate.”
This notion has been fanned by an interconnected web of international organizations: Agenda Europe, CitizenGO, Political Network for Values, Alliance Defending Freedom, the American Center for Law and Justice, the European Center for Law and Justice, the Council on National Policy, and the aforementioned World Congress of Families, which was founded in Moscow as a collaboration between U.S. and Russian conservatives.
For these groups, anticipated population shifts are just one of several scare tactics used to lure acolytes. Add in “saving” women from the alleged horrors of a rapacious “abortion industry and protecting children from ‘gender ideologies’ intended to turn them into ‘mentally ill, bodily mutilated, and sexually dysfunctional tragedies,’” and it makes sense that adults who are bombarded with this messaging by their churches, families, friends and social media feeds have turned from picketing their local abortion facility to getting involved in multi-issue rightwing organizations. Teaching kids that they are “survivors” of abortion and goading them to stand in solidarity with other “survivors” is another tenet used to woo adolescents and teens to anti-choice and broader rightwing movements.
The group Created Equal is a case in point. According to Mason, Created Equal infuses its materials with a hefty dose of misogyny. “Opposing abortion,” she writes, “is an honorable way for men to stand against the onslaught of women’s rights and abusive feminists.” What’s more, in the Created Equal universe, men are positioned as underdogs. “Opposing abortion by positioning men as victims to be protected fits and fuels larger populist campaigns,” Mason continues. “This is especially true for far-right populists who depict white people under siege by people of color who threaten to overpower them demographically with high birth rates. This fear of demographic and cultural demise has for years manifested as opposition to abortion for white people.”
I agree. But what is missing in this narrative is the troubling existence of groups like Feminists for Life, the Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance, Hispanics for Life, and African Americans for Life. While some of these groups may be fronts for white-led organizations, it stretches credibility to assume that all members are dupes. In addition, Christianity Today magazine reported in February 2025 that 28% of evangelicals in the United States are non-white. Most oppose abortion, believe homosexuality should be “socially discouraged” and support cuts to government-funded social welfare programs.
It is unclear how this fits into Mason’s framework.
That aside, Mason’s portrayal of “abortion abolitionists,” the latest incarnation of far-right anti-abortion sentiment, situates this grouping firmly with Trump and MAGA. “Supremacist ideologies and anti-statism have gone mainstream,” she concludes. Roe is gone and the movement has now turned to other linked issues: opposing vaccines; stopping medication abortion; banning queer-themed books and texts addressing race, racism, gender and sexuality; opposing queer rights and trans acceptance; slashing spending on public education, Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP and Social Security; bolstering the military; restricting immigration and upping deportations; and blurring the fragile line separating church and state.
Pushing back can feel overwhelming, but figuring out strategies to oppose the right remains the challenge of the moment. Let’s hope we, as progressives, can rise to meet it.
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From Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary
By Carol Mason
University of California Press; 304 pages
$29.95 paperback; $95.00 hardcover
Release Date: Aug. 19, 2025
