Customer Reviews

Aborted Women, Silent No More

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm grateful to David Reardon for collecting these stories. For those of us who unexpectedly suffer significant emotional distress or even trauma after abortion, it is such a relief to realize that we are not alone and not crazy. When I came across this book, it broke down my isolation and gave me hope for healing. I looked around for other resources to help me pursue that healing and have been incredibly grateful to find them. For me, knowing that other women also suffered was a vital first step toward recovery.

This is an invaluable book for anyone interested in the abortion issue. It details the very real emotional and physical fallout of elective abortion, and features the strained voices of women victimized by what our society calls "safe, legal abortion." Abuses against the poor and women of color are particulary distressing to read about. I hope every woman considering abortion will read this book first.

I own a copy of this book printed in the 80's. I assumed the new edition would have updated statistics. Unfortinately its just a reprint, not really a new edition.

The book is powerful but the stats need to be updated.

I liked this book so much that after reading it in the library, I bought it on Amazon.com. I want my daughter (and son) to read it when they get older. After hearing so much pro-choice rhetoric EVERYWHERE, it is refreshing to read what I've always felt has been true in my heart. This book is pro-life FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF WOMEN WHO HAVE HAD ABORTIONS, making it unique in my eyes. It mentions the physical and psychological risks of abortion, that are all too often glossed over by the pro-choice advocates. Even the hardest cases for abortion, like rape and incest are addressed with candor and compassion from women who've been there. This book covers the impact abortion has on later children and problems women have with infertility and the breast cancer link. This book does NOT sit in judgement of women who've had abortions. That's the beauty of it, too. It is rather a cautionary tale, a means of educating women (and men, too). There are other options. Women deserve better than to be rejected for being pregnant, and killing their unborn when they think there's no other "choices". This book is TRUE FEMINISM...it is the love of women in their most vulnerable state. "Mother and child are as one, and they cannot be separated without doing violence to both." (Truly feminism should be the love and acceptance of women for what nature intended them to be at some point in their lives...mothers.)
I must also mention that this book accurately paints abortion as the money-making industry that it is, not a sacrament meant for the betterment of womankind.
I hope an expanded, newer edition comes out. I'll buy that, too.

There isn't anything socially scientific about Reardon's 'study'. Notice he doesn't weigh any findings on the voices of the women who go on to feel no guilt, remorse or depression...and there are many! He's not interested in the variety of experiences of women who have had not only one abortion but sometimes two, he's interested in narrowly framing abortion for political ends. The only people who would find this book interesting is the choir that already has a negative view of abortions, in short its not objective in any way nor does it include the many many women who have never experienced any of the feelings after an abortion he describes.

Worthless propaganda... not worth reading. If you want to get a well-rounded education on abortion, run far away from this book.

One must read a few chapters of "Aborted Women: Silent No More" before realizing that despite its seemingly non-judgemental title, this book continues to force subtle pro-life propaganda on its audience. As a woman and feminist who has experienced abortion, I wholeheartedly agree that most women who undergo abortions suffer long-term emotional trauma as a result; this experience and suffering deserves to be given a voice and should not be denied or overlooked in order to further either side of the political debate. However, Mr. Reardon's use of the personal histories of women who have all since come to believe that what they did was bad and wrong, become pro-life advocates, and found solice in the Lord seems disgustingly biased. What of women, like myself and the many aborted women I know, who do suffer emotional trauma, but continue to believe in freedom of choice? The personal histories which Mr. Reardon utilizes are immeasurably valuable as testimonies of the abortion experience - but they are of a limited and obviously-slanted perspective. Mr. Reardon's book is full of useful statistical and factual information about the overall abortion experience, but these too are explained in a clearly "I told you how evil it was" tone. Is it so impossible for one to honor the voice of these women who have made the decision to abort without forcing religious or political propaganda down the throats of readers? Abortion may never be out of the public eye - and it is its presence in the public eye that has allowed it to become a political and religious issue. At its heart, however, it is a personal issue - the personal decision of every woman who is ever pregnant and does not immediately know that she will carry the child to term - whether she eventually does abort or not. This book is a useful example of the manipulation of women's stories for the sake of the greater pro-life cause, but it is difficult to read with any level of comfort if you don't already subscribe to that rhetoric.