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Episode 4: 'It’s a very short path'

Is there a lesson for the U.S. in Poland's extreme anti-abortion law and the popular backlash it has provoked?
Image: Abortion rights demonstrators rally
Abortion rights demonstrators rally to mark the first anniversary of the US Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs v Women's Health Organization case in Washington, D.C. on June 24, 2023.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP - Getty Images

About this episode:

A new president with authoritarian tendencies packs the nation’s highest court, which then outlaws abortion – sparking not just a backlash, but a new coalition for democracy and the rule of the law. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson explore how events abroad in just the last few years might help us understand what is happening now in the United States.

Related material:

Read: Our guest Anne Applebaum explains the conspiracy-fueled rise of the right-wing Law and Justice Party in Poland.

Watch: Rachel reports on the first death known to have resulted from Poland’s abortion ban, in 2021.

See: The sea of umbrellas on Black Monday 2016, the protest that kicked off the Polish movement to protect abortion rights. 

Watch: Amanda Zurawski testifies to congress about how she nearly died because of Texas’s abortion ban.

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