The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion [Paperback]

Angela Bonavoglia (Editor), Gloria Steinem (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2001

Every day in America, abortion providers and the women who need them are in danger. First published ten years ago, this collection of 25 powerful stories from contributors both famous and ordinary, privileged and poor, provides often harrowing insights into what happens when women are denied the right to choose. Testimonials from teenagers, college students, overloaded young mothers, and even a retired male Marine put a human face on one of this country’s most controversial issues and offer passionate arguments for access to legal and safe abortions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press; 2nd edition (March 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568581882
• ISBN-13: 978-1568581880
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Abortion & Birth Control

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coat Hanger Days, March 29, 2001

By 

Indienne - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion (Paperback)

This is a terrific collection of first-person narratives by women who had illegal abortions in the days before Roe V Wade. Some are famous -- Whoopi Goldberg, Linda Ellerbee, Jill Clayburgh, Ursula K LeGuin, Grace Paley. Others are not. But all testify to the fear, desperation and danger that surround abortion when it is forced underground. Harsh religion, sexual ignorance, unsympathetic families, and vanishing boyfriends are recurring themes. Each woman tells her own story--vividly and naturally, without slogans or jargon. Coat hangers and death by sepsis or hemorrhage are not pro-choice propaganda -- they were realities not so long ago. I hope everyone who supports abortion rights will give this book to a friend who thinks maybe restricting abortion would be a good idea. A definite must for your local public library.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humanizes, explains, makes real, November 12, 2010

By 

Melissa Boone (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion (Paperback)

First, I want to say that I'm disappointed that some ideological blowhards are bringing down the rating of this book, despite probably not even having read the book.

But this book is a perfect example of why abortion needs to remain legal in the United States - and everywhere. 25 women tell stories of getting abortions, either before 1973 and Roe v. Wade, or shortly thereafter, or many years after. It's a progression, and predictably, the earlier stories are particularly horrifying - coat hangers, household cleaning products, deadly herbs, etc. Women have and always will be desperate to control their own reproduction, bodies, and lives, and many many many women will go to desperate measures in order to do that even with the risks are great. Reading the stories, you can feel these women's emotions - their panic, their feeling of being trapped, their harrowing thought process and ultimate decision, and in some cases, the aftermath. There is also one man who tells his story of his mother's botched abortion leading to her death, and how it affected his life. Goes to show how criminalizing abortion not only affects women - it affects the other people in their lives around them, who lose mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, and friends.

If you are going to read this go in with an open mind and the desire to take a peek into the mind of a woman making an important decision in her life, not with pre-condemnation of these women for doing what they felt was best for themselves and their families.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pathetic!, October 23, 2011

By 

A. Tegeler (Texas) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion (Paperback)

I really expected some of these "stories" to be over the top. But the selfish, narcissistic women in this book just make me shudder. Never has any one book used the word "I" more. Very few of these women were unfortunate (?) enough to want for anything except perhaps discipline and morals. This book is absolutely depressing and not worth the paper it is written on.