Sian Norris

Acclaimed investigative journalist Siân Norris brings us an in-depth exposé of how far-right extremists across Europe are slowly but surely introducing broader fascist politics, and the shocking extent of their connections to the American far right, in her ground-breaking new book, Bodies Under Siege.

Think today’s anti-abortion ideas are rooted in religious prohibitions or arguments about where life begins? Wrong: today’s anti-abortion movements are largely financed and planned by far-right extremists. Many of them are avowedly fascist and white supremacist, afraid of a “great replacement” of the world’s white population by other races, who are working hard to reshape governments and policies across Europe, North America, and around the world. Much of this far-right organizing and funding network, however, has been overlooked by today’s feminist and left movements.

As Siân uncovers here, it is through attacking abortion rights that fascist ideas from the dark web, incel chat boards, and fringe organizations comes to enter mainstream debate — and to then shape governmental policy across Europe, from authoritarian regimes like Hungary’s to liberal democracies like Britain. As she goes undercover at anti-abortion activist meetings, and pieces together the money trail linking American think tanks to far-right fascist groups, she maps out the pipeline by which fascism has become respectable across the Global North by taking away women’s reproductive rights and autonomy.

'Essential reading on what has become – yet again – one of the most important battles of our times ... [this] is an illuminating and passionate guide to the war on women’s bodies and rights – there is so much here I didn’t know, and to have it all set down so lucidly makes this book as invaluable as it is engrossing.'
—Marina Hyde

'When it comes to the critical issues shaping our society, there are journalists who try to observe and analyse from on high – and then there are journalists like Sian Norris, who throw themselves headfirst into the messy tangle of people, places and politics that matter, and do so with passion and bite.'
—Jack Schenker, author of The Egyptians and Now We Have Your Attention