Anti-Dobbs: An Interdisciplinary Polemic

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, rooted in an unarticulated patriarchy in the Supreme Court’s historical narrative, represents an untimely expression of deeply religious and conservative hostility towards women. Anti-Dobbs: An Interdisciplinary Polemic offers a contrasting viewpoint, asserting that abortion prohibitions are inherently anti-woman and that no valid arguments for restricting abortion exist without demeaning women. The abortion issue is a shadow cast by the law over a more fundamental question: the status and recognition of women as human beings and equal citizens. The book argues that expansive abortion rights are fundamental to women’s equality and asserts that Dobbs was profoundly wrong, both legally and morally. Based on over 20 years of the author’s experience teaching a course entitled "Law and Diversity in U.S. History," the work is a critical response and a polemic advocating for the equality of women who have been reduced by the Supreme Court to little more than "fetal containers." Anti-Dobbs: An Interdisciplinary Polemic "is a responsible book, a voice that speaks from authenticity, a brave voice without filters, with raw realities and overwhelming strength. A book that has a level of rawness that makes us question our arrival in the world. It is a wake-up call, and for those of us who are awake and if being human belongs to us, the question ‘what are we going to do about it?’ is brutal. I want to do something about it." —Mónica Salmón, clinical psychotherapist and best-selling author. "With this book, author Omar Swartz offers a deep dive into the issues surrounding the abortion debate in America after the devastating Dobbs decision of the Supreme Court. Swartz does a masterful job at providing a comprehensive context for the debate and the decision. He exposes a profound, systemic hatred of women, and attempts to utterly control them by the dangerous right-wing culture warriors, that has now actually moved to the level of state-supported misogyny. Women have died now, since the Dobbs decision, because medical personnel fear being jailed for carrying out the Hippocratic Oath they solemnly took to become doctors. Women have a powerful, compassionate, and knowledgeable champion against the ravages of right-wing misogyny and cruelty in author Swartz. He offers here an incisive, well-researched argument in support of protection for women at levels even beyond the deeply troubling issue of abortion. These right-wing culture warriors will not carry the future, in part thanks to the noble efforts of this brilliant author." —Sharon Coggan, author of Sacred Disobedience: A Jungian Analysis of the Saga of Pan and the Devil. "Arguably, the greatest contribution of this work is that it helps to provide support and analysis across fields with its synthesis of ideas and arguments. While there have been other studies to examine the political or social aspects of Dobbs, none that I am aware of have so eloquently blended legal analysis with historical foundations and religious and social critiques to provides a much fuller picture of Dobbs itself, and also how it fits into the overall lack of equality faced by women in the United States." —From the reviewers’ report.

Table of Contents:
PREFACE – ACKNOWLEDGMENTS – INTRODUCTION – A CRITIQUE OF JUDICIAL PHILOSOPHY – LIBERAL AND RADICAL FEMINISM REVISITED – THE PROFOUND MISOGYNY OF THE COMMON LAW TRADITION WITHIN AND OUTSIDE OF COVERTURE – CHRISTIANITY, AND THE PATRIA POTESTAS POWER OF THE HUSBAND/ FATHER/ STATE IN THE COMMON LAW TRADITION – ABORTION RESTRICTIONS ARE ANTI-WOMEN – CONCLUSION – BIBLIOGRAPHY – ABOUT THE AUTHOR – INDEX.

About the Author :
Omar Swartz is an interdisciplinary scholar with a JD from Duke University and a PhD in Communication from Purdue University. He has authored or edited 14 books and more than 120 essays, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and reviews. He teaches courses on Law and Diversity in U.S. History, Constitutional Law, and the First Amendment.