In “Dollars for Life,” Mary Ziegler argues that, over the course of decades, the anti-abortion movement laid the groundwork for an insurgent candidate like Donald Trump.
By Jennifer Szalai
June 12, 2022
DOLLARS FOR LIFE: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment, By Mary Ziegler. 318 pages. Yale University Press. $35.
The upheavals of the last few years have been so relentless that it can be hard to recall just how weird the partnership was: Donald J. Trump and social conservatives, an odd couple for the ages. As the legal historian Mary Ziegler writes in “Dollars for Life,” the start of the 2016 election cycle had evangelicals extremely worried. Hillary Clinton — whose possible presidency they deemed “catastrophic” — was running on what Ziegler calls “arguably the most pro-choice platform in history.” Could a “foul-mouthed real estate mogul” really turn out to be “the savior they were looking for”?