Today is National Read A Book Day, and in light of Kentucky reinstating their near-total abortion ban last month, it’s a great time to explore the literature on abortion rights. Here are ten great books to get you started:
Handbook for a Post-Roe America by Robin Marty
A comprehensive and user-friendly manual for understanding and preparing for the looming changes to reproductive rights law, and getting the healthcare you need—by any means necessary.
This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor by Susan Wicklund
A brave account of the social and political forces that threaten a woman's right to choose, this emotionally affecting memoir from a doctor on the front lines of the abortion debate reveals what's really at stake in the Supreme Court.
Authors David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe lay bare the often arduous and unnecessarily burdensome process of terminating a pregnancy: the sabotaged decision-making, clinics in remote locations, insurance bans, harassing protesters, forced ultrasounds and dishonest medical information, arbitrary waiting periods, and unjustified procedure limitations.
1 in 3: These Are Our Stories by Various Authors
1 in 3 women in the United States will have an abortion in her lifetime. The 1 in 3 Campaign is about ending the cultural stigma and shame women are made to feel around abortion. By sharing stories, we can empower others to end their silence and encourage all supporters of abortion access to publicly take a stand. This book was compiled from stories submitted to the 1 in 3 Campaign. The 1 in 3 Campaign is a project of Advocates for Youth.
Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion by Katie Watson
This book explores the personal stigma that prevents many from sharing their abortion experiences with friends and family in private conversation, and the structural stigma that keeps it that way.
Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by Katha Pollitt
Pro reaffirms the priority of a woman's life and health, and discusses why terminating a pregnancy can be a force for good for women, families, and society. It is time, Pollitt argues, that we reclaim the lives and the rights of women and mothers.
How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex by Cristina Page
The first book to address the positive transformation our society has undergone because of our ability to plan when and if to have children. It also exposes the anti-choice movement's far-reaching-and dangerous-agenda.
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts
From slave masters’ economic stake in bonded women’s fertility to government programs that coerced thousands of poor Black women into being sterilized as late as the 1970s, these abuses pointed to the degradation of Black motherhood—and the exclusion of Black women’s reproductive needs in mainstream feminist and civil rights agendas.
The Turnaway Study: The Cost of Denying Women Access to Abortion by Diana Greene Foster
What happens when a woman seeking an abortion is turned away? To answer this question, Diana Greene Foster assembled a team of scientists—psychologists, epidemiologists, demographers, nurses, physicians, economists, sociologists, and public health researchers—to conduct a ten-year study. They followed a thousand women from across America, some of whom received abortions, some of whom were turned away. Now, for the first time, Dr. Foster presents the results of this landmark study in one extraordinary, groundbreaking book.
Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood by Michele Goodwin
In this timely book, Michele Goodwin brings to light how the unrestrained efforts to punish and police women's reproduction has led to the United States being the deadliest country in the developed world for pregnant women.