Customer Reviews

How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Sex, Virtue, and the Way We Live Now

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This is a really great book for anyone willing to keep an open-mind. I'm the type of person who likes to read about both sides of an issue. I'm a former seminary student who was a very "good" Christian. I graduated from a Baptist University with a degree in Biblical Studies. I then went on to attend seminary (I'm currently in my 3rd year of law school). I grew up attending pro-life rallies in my hometown. My mom even voluteered for a crisis pregancy center when I was younger. Needless to say, I have always been pro-life. However, this book may have changed my mind.

This book really surprised me. I had no idea that the pro-life people had an agenda far beyond preventing abortions. As established in the book, they really wish to control the morals/sexual habits of people, not just to prevent abortions. I learned that by opposing contraception, as almost all pro-life groups do, the pro-life movement actually causes more abortions.

I became interested in this book after reading "Freakonomics," which argues that legalizing abortion has actually lowered the crime rate in America, a statistic I found very interesting.

I still don't know how I feel about abortion itself, but I know that I don't agree with the far-reaching effects of pro-life agenda. I definitely will not support the movement anymore by automatically voting for Republicans based on the sole issue of abortion, as I've always done.

I would encourage any pro-life person who is really concerned with preventing abortions to read this book. Even if it doesn't change your mind about abortion, it will give you insight into the primary agenda of many pro-life groups. As a pro-lifer myself, I was shocked and disappointed that my own group may be contributing to the abortion problem rather than solving it.

How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America isn't a history of the fading glory of the pro-choice and feminist movements. It's an incisive look at tomorrow's pro-life movement - and a chilling read. If you think that the prospect of overturning Roe is farfetched, or that it might calm the passions of the conservative movement, think again. Defeating Roe is just another step on the way to reinventing the American social order, with birth control, women's rights and personal privacy all in the cross hairs.

I began the book with an underlying feeling of safety. After all, a majority of American's support a woman's right to choose. Even in a worst case scenario, I knew that my home state would continue to provide abortion care in a post-Roe world. Beyond that, I had even secretly wondered whether the post-Roe world might be good for the Democratic Party since the right would be losing its biggest weapon.

Page's book blew away these fallacies quickly, quietly and without a look back. Before I knew it, Roe was the least of my worries, as the breadth of the pro-life agenda became apparent. One thing is for sure, it won't be someone else's problem - the issues at stake affect the life of every American. Hopefully, awareness will translate into action.

Cristina Page has managed the nearly impossible by swaddling an immense amount of meticulous research in fast paced prose that forced me to read How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America in one sitting. This is a book people should be talking about.

Did you know that not a single anti-choice organization from Right to Life to Feminists for Life explicitly supports contraception? Thank you, mainstream media for not pointing this out! In this short and extremely readable manifesto, Cristina Page shows that the organized anti-choice movement is not just opposed to legal abortion: it also wants to limit women's access to birth control and emergency contraception, push "abstinence only" sex ed, make people around the world, even AIDS-ravaged Africa stop using condoms (they 'don't work,' you know), and promote the view that sex is for procreation only and that women belong in the home taking care of the multiple results. A few years ago, anyone who said this would have been dismissed as a paranoid. Recent events --pharmacists refusing to fill birth control prescriptions, the South Dakota abortion ban, shifts in AIDS funding in Africa from comprehensive locally-based groups to inexperienced Christian abstinence promoters-- have shown its truth.
Page argues that the pro-choice vision -- sex for pleasure and intimacy, not just for babies; marriage between equals; flexible gender roles -- is the modern one that most people want. But will they fight for it? Or let the anti-choicers run their lives?
A really good book and suprisingly fun,humorous and down to earth -- must reading for everyone who cares about what is happening to this country.

I am very disturbed by troubles people are apparently having with finding pro-choice books at Amazon. When I put the title of this book in Amazon's search engine without the hyphen in "pro-choice" I was told that no such book existed. Come on, Amazon! don't make it hard for readers to find what they're looking for just because someone in your vast organization has a bee in their bonnet--whether about abortion rights or punctuation.

page delivers an impeccably sourced argument that the political face of pro-life america has a much broader agenda than banning abortion. namely, they are actively hostile to the availability of artificial birth control. she makes a solid case for her claim that these organizations and their leaders are actively deceptive in presenting 'evidence' for the merits of their agenda. over forty pages of this rather short, but compact book are devoted to footnotes alone. it cannot be claimed that page did not do her research. her claims about the long-term goals of political pro-life organizations are backed up with copious cites from the publications, websites, and representatives of these organizations. time and time again, she documents instances in which the people who staff and fund these organizations ignore, distort, or outright lie about solid, scientifically-sound research refuting their claims about abortion, contraception, and abstinence-only sex education.

the average pro-life american is clearly not as extreme in their stance towards contraception. the vast, vast majority of sexually active americans avail themselves of an array of contraceptive options. the political arm of pro-life america, however, is grossly out of step with the values of most pro-life americans. one does not have to agree with page's stance on abortion rights, but to claim that she has lied about the goals and intentions of political pro-life organizations and their leaders is to name oneself as an exile from the reality-based community.

How the Pro Choice Movement Saved America is a celebratory book of sorts, written by a woman who has been fighting for reproductive and family planning rights for much of her adult life. Cristina Page has been a leader in several different pro- choice organizations and she is a fervent believer not only in the importance of keeping abortion legal, but also in the many benefits that society has reaped since abortion was legalized in 1973.

Abortion is a passionate issue that divides many Americans. It's a delicate issue and there are so many "ifs", "ands", and "buts" that it is often difficult to take a divisive stand. Cristina Page, however, has taken a stand and hers isn't as radical as the book's title suggests. She feels that abortion, while certainly not a desirable procedure and something everyone should avoid, has had some positive benefits to society. Once abortion and contraception were legalized, women were empowered to take control of their lives. It has led to greater enrollment in college, greater financial security for the children, and a smaller child- bearing burden to bear. The fact that family planning is now a choice has led to a stronger family, for these and other reasons.

Cristina Page didn't write this book mainly as a defense of the pro- choice movement. What Page really intended with this book is to expose the more extreme elements in the pro- life movement and how they will resort to anything to validate their position. While pro- choice advocates rely on science and reason to support their views, pro- life adherents will use any tactic necessary to win support for their cause. This includes distorting the facts and manipulating data, presenting false and misleading information, and commissioning phony studies or surveys that are biased in favor of the pro- life side.

I can agree with much of what Page says in this book. One doesn't have to look very far or very hard to see the smokescreen tactics of pro- life organizations. However, before we begin demonizing pro- life political groups for misleading the public in their efforts to make abortion a crime, we also have to consider the fact that abortion, at present, is legal. Could it be that the pro- life organizations feel they have to stretch the truth a little bit if they have any hope of overturning a Supreme Court decision? If Roe vs. Wade is overturned and abortion is severely restricted or outlawed, isn't there a good chance the pro- choice organizations would resort to precisely the same tactics?

As for the writing and presentation of this book, it is okay at best. I like the fact that Page devoted so much time to gathering official research data because it helps persuade the reader. But the added notes and sources comprise about thirty percent of the book's pages. Take them away, and you have a book with only 168 pages: Not nearly enough to give a topic like this the justice it deserved. The presentation isn't the best either. It is basically a solid wall of words and statistics. I would have liked it better if it included some tables and/or graphic illustrations to drive its points home.

With such limited space, this book doesn't dive deeply enough into the abortion issue the way I would prefer. This fact is most glaring in the book's final chapter, which discusses what the United States would be like if Roe vs. Wade was overturned. It was a good idea to include some frank discussion on this important concern, but there are so many valid points that could have been made and weren't, I got frustrated reading it. For example, there is almost no discussion at all of the black market in abortions that would most certainly rise out of nowhere if Roe vs. Wade was removed from the legal code. And even more frightening is the government crackdown on illegal abortion that would most certainly follow. It would mean the end of most of our privacy rights as we know them today, yet this issue is barely touched in the book's closing chapter.

Overall, "How the Pro- Choice Movement Saved America" is a good book, but not quite the blockbusting piece of political non- fiction I was hoping for. It has many important and perfectly valid points to make and it backs itself with plenty of statistics and sources. It's good and worth a read, but it is really too short to make its way onto a list of the most important books on reproductive rights.

If you're considering buying this book, you definitely should. After reading it, I put it at the top of my favorites list.

The beauty of this book is that the author knows the issues aren't black and white, as the Pro-Life campaign would like to make everyone think. And she knows the Pro-Choice view of life isn't just about abortions, either. Page has examined contraceptives, teen mothers, the ineffectiveness of abstinence programs in schools, Roe itself and many other landmark issues through the years and writes about them in perfect clarity. She definitely knows her facts, but never bores the reader. The book is extremely well researched and thought out. Reading it made me feel so proud to be Pro-Choice. She sheds light on so many issues I never even knew existed, like how far the Pro-Life movement will go to underhandedly and unfairly lie, cheat and steal for what they want. It's scary, but it's 100% true. And no other author could make it more interesting.

Even if you're on the fence about a woman's right to choose, this book will really open your eyes, about how much women (and men!) have fought for, and how easily it can be taken away. A fantastic book!

This book needs to be required reading for every thinking adult in America. For many years I've been thinking -- and saying -- that the pro-life movement isn't about "saving pweshus baybeez" any more than the supposed "defense of marriage" crowd is about actually making marriages stronger. Both movements share one insidious goal: quietly making American into this vision of a 1950s utopia that never actually existed by bringing about nothing less than the forced Christianization of the nation.

I really would encourage anybody who has an opinion about abortion and birth control to read this book. It's passionate, but it cites respectable sources and makes its points clearly and readily. One of its main points is that the grassroots pro-life movement really has no idea what its leadership is really about or what its sympathetic legislators are actually trying to get passed into law. I know, but then, I got my hands (not entirely ethically) on a copy of a "Crisis Pregnancy Center"'s brainwashing handbook and saw for myself what these people are like in private. I was even pro-life at the time, but this didn't last long! I wish I could convey in words how horrible it was to see, laid bare, what the real agenda was. I knew then that pro-life meant religious indoctrination, not the saving of "unborn children" -- Page knows, as well as I have for years, that fetuses are just a handy way to grab the attention of the uneducated and nonvigilant among us and manipulate an increasingly hysterical and gullible American public. Hey, if we bought Intelligent Design, we might just buy "abortifacient" birth control. And oh wait, we did.

If this book does absolutely nothing else I hope it also spurs Americans into political action. Please vote your conscience and make sure your legislators know what you actually stand for. They don't care about babies either -- they care about what'll get your vote. If invading Namibia with water pistols would get them elected, there'd be a run on Super Soakers in Washington DC. So tell them what'll get your vote. Page paints a rather bleak view of what could well happen if the "pro-life" movement is allowed to dictate what our sex lives look like -- and worse, it's already happening right under our noses. She makes us realize we need to be paying closer attention. For that I am thankful I read this book.

And even more thankful I'm sterilized. This is some scary stuff.

I read this book in one sitting, unable to put it down. Cristina Page not only exposes a little-known, dark underbelly to the organized pro-life movement in America -- she also sheds light on the vast societal consequences that would result if Roe v. Wade were overturned. She does not merely speak in hypotheticals, either; she has evidence to back up her claims.

Even those who consider themselves pro-life owe it to themselves to read her argument so that they are fully aware of what the influential pro-lifers in power are actually fighting for.

As a tenuously pro-choice advocate, I was hesitant to read this book because "The New York Sun's" endorsement printed on the cover says, "Cristina Page is the Ann Coulter of the pro-choice movement." Geeeeeesh, Ms. Coulter isn't exactly what I would call the pinnacle of veracity when it comes to facts. Fortunately, despite my reservations, I read Ms. Page's book. The author does a commendable job laying out the argument on why the pro-choice movement is more humane and beneficial for society than the pro-life position. The delivery is somewhat aggressive, but at least the lady backs up her facts with an impressive list of documented resources. Also, abortion isn't the only subject covered. Birth control is given its due.

Originally, published in 2006, President Bush was into his second term when this book was released. Ms. Page's facts are correct about how science took a back seat to politics and faith during his administration. It didn't and still doesn't matter to the pro-life movement that we can only realistically and dramatically reduce abortions by following in the footsteps of Sweden and the Netherlands. These two countries with the world's lowest abortion rates is due to their having liberal abortion laws, well-financed contraception programs, and a commitment to comprehensive sex education that includes teaching children about contraception. Ms. Page's argument does gravitate towards the more extreme groups, but the Bush Adminstration gave these pro-life jihadists a lot of elbow room to help institute policy. If you're going to make a decision about where you stand on this important issue, at least have the courage to read the facts. Ms. Page delivers in a highly informative and readable fashion.

My daughter ordered this book to use in writing a college paper, and I ended up reading it because the title sort of drew me in. It is an extremely well-written, well-researched book that simply and logically articulates the thesis that the "pro-life" movement has a "hidden" (or maybe not so hidden) agenda that actually goes beyond ending abortion. Obviously, pro-lifers won't like this book and won't believe it, but for the majority of Americans who are ambivalent or uneasy about the subject, it may make them think twice about being complacent.