There are many highly readable, informative, fascinating and useful books about abortion and reproductive justice. We’re going to add more of them to this page in the upcoming days. Enjoy, and please support your independent bookseller. We particularly recommend the two feminist bookstores in Chicago, Women and Children First and Semicolon Chicago. Here in McHenry County be sure to patronize Read Between the Lynes and The Green Read and The Green Spot.
For starters, here’s two favorites:
Madame Restell: The Life, Death and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist, by Jennifer Wright. Newly released, and an absolute page-turner. Check out reviews and stories about her in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Smithsonian, the New York Historical Society, and Wikipedia.
Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, by Katha Pollitt. With wit and logic, Pollitt musters science, history, religion, statistics and stories of real women’s lives to make crystal clear that abortion is a social good — good for women, good for children and good for men. It’s a normal part of life and has been since ancient times. Her introduction — telling the story of her mother and the abortion she had and kept secret — is particularly moving. Read the reviews in the New York Times and in Dissent.