Book Talk: Shefali Luthra — Undue Burden
On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the impact was immediate: by 2023, abortion was virtually unavailable or significantly restricted in 21 states. As other nations largely expand legal abortion access, the U.S. has gone backwards; the bans being enforced in many states are some of the most severe in the entire world.
In Undue Burden, reporter Shefali Luthra traces the unforgettable stories of patients faced with one of the most personal decisions of their lives. Outside of Houston, there’s a 16-year-old girl who becomes pregnant well before she intends to. A 21-year-old mother barely making ends meet has to travel hundreds of miles in secret to access care in another state. A 42-year-old woman with a life-threatening condition wants nothing more than to safely carry her pregnancy to term, but her home state’s abortion bans fail to provide her with the options she needs to make an informed decision. And a 19-year-old trans man struggles to access care in Florida as abortion bans radiate across the American South.
Before, it was a common misconception that abortion restrictions affected only people in certain states, but left one’s own life untouched. Now, patients forced to travel to access care creates a domino effect across the entire country. As the landscape of abortion rights continues to shift, the experiences of these patients–those who had to cross state lines to seek life-saving care, who risked everything they had in pursuit of their own bodily autonomy, and who were unable to plan their reproductive future in the way that they deserved–illustrates how fragile the system is, and how devastating the consequences can be.
Through the perspectives of patients, providers, activists, and lawmakers, Undue Burden is a revelatory portrait of human rights, healthcare, and economic and racial inequality in America.
Shefali Luthra has covered national health policy for the past decade, most recently at The 19th. Her coverage of abortion rights has been cited in Congressional testimony and Supreme Court briefings and in 2023 received an Online Journalism Award. Luthra’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and more. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Luthra will be in conversation with Ali Vitali, a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News based in Washington, D.C. Vitali has been at the forefront of countless Congressional stories, ranging from blow-by-blow coverage of the historic ousting of a Speaker of the House to in-depth policy reporting that seeks to bring legislative text to life. In 2024, she followed the Republican primary with a focus on the campaigns of Senator Tim Scott and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. In February 2024, she asked Haley her stance on IVF and embryos during an exclusive sit down, setting off a national firestorm for Republicans across the country forced to grapple with that issue. As an NBC News “Road Warrior” in 2020, Vitali followed and reported on the campaigns of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bloomberg during the Democratic primary contests. In 2022, she was part of a team nominated for their coverage of the midterm election. Vitali also covered the Trump Administration as a White House Reporter for NBC News Digital after a year and half as a political campaign embed reporter on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. In 2022, Vitali authored Electable, a book detailing her experiences as a “Road Warrior” and investigating the double standards placed on female presidential candidates.
