Customer Reviews

With Liberty and Justice for All: A Life Spent Protecting the Right to Choose

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Noone has a better right to tell this story nor a better vantage point from which to tell it. Kate has spent her life fighting for women's rights and we need to hear what she has to say so we never forget what justice is all about.

If renewed attention is not directed at women's rights, they may be lost. Kate Michelman believes we are living in a monumental time for the women's movement, as a role back of freedom might be at hand. Her book, With Liberty and Justice for All, details her life on the frontlines of the fight for reproductive choice and is meant as a wakeup call so that women will not lose all the rights she fought to gain.

Michelman accounts her life in the women's movement, how the practicing Catholic began to question the equality and fairness of the laws of the nation and of the church. Her tales include how she gained respectability among her peers, eventually reaching the presidency of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Readers get to see the history of her activism, including working to prevent Ronald Reagan from loading the Supreme Court with Justices who would role back women's rights.

Sound familiar? Although most of her experience relates to years past, Michelman builds on her history to comment on the current state of women's rights, including the possibility of another Republican president (this time George Bush) appointing anti-choice Judges. She claims an overwhelming support exists in this country for abortion rights, and she uses anecdotal evidence to support many of her positions. She details women whose lives have been lost because of anti-choice laws and shows how women can be more free to protect their bodies only if attention remains focused on protecting those rights.

This book is not only an engaging account of how a brilliant mind orchestrates a fight for justice--it's a healing book to read. Kate Michelman's genius is in her reasonableness. The other side is not reasonable. Her strength lies in that she listens. The other side does not listen. She fights with quiet persistence. She hears the pro-lifers' words; she respects that there are some people out there who believe a clump of cells the size of the head of a pin is a human being whose rights trump those of the woman carrying it. In answer, she says quietly, persistently to these Advocates of Forced Birth--But there's a woman there. Not a host. Not an environment. Not soil. A human still in possession of rights, and no, I will not let you legislate them away. KM has startling patience with those who believe a woman's human rights have vanished because her birth control failed. This book makes it so clear who's listening-- and who isn't. Something else that came through strongly in this book is the truth that birth is a creative act that a woman carries out, an immense undertaking that can't succeed without her full cooperation, her wisdom, her skill, her love. She must be an active participant--not a passive receptacle, not the captive of another's will. It is KM's gentle persistence in the face of the barbarity of her opponents that is so powerful. The other side is anything but gentle. A rapist uses a woman's body for his pleasure. A pro-lifer uses a woman's body to act out narrow, irrational religious convictions. Both freely trample her will, leave her physically injured, psychically brutalized. Wise, too, is the title --With Liberty and Justice for All-- for nothing less is at stake. But outrage will not win the fight. KM's relentless reasonableness just might.

Extremely well written and incredibly timely. Michelman does an excellent job laying out the facts and educating the reader. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is itnerested in the topic of abortion rights.

The novel is about Michelman, who was president of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) from 1985 to 2004, goes into the details of not only her personal experiences with abortion, but how she fought to keep it legal. Michelman starts with her own fight for an abortion and then dives into the battles over the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. She discusses those who tried to overturn Roe v. Wade, as well as discusses how "pro-lifers" often turned to burning down abortion clinics, and had hit lists with names of doctors who preformed legal abortions. Michelman ends the novel with her description of the 2004 March for Women's Lives in DC. Personally, I felt that this book was inspirational and showed us that putting effort into a cause can make a huge difference. As someone who is also pro-choice I owe my ability to make decisions about my body in part to Michelman.

In a timely and important book, Kate Michelman lays out exactly why we must come together and defend our rights to privacy and choice. There's no melodrama, no moralizing, no preaching. This dispassionate history of a passionate life is nothing less than a wake up call. I hope and pray people will open their eyes.

Apart from sounding an important clarion call to all woman who want to preserve their privacy and right to control their ability to plan their family, this is a fascinating look at the political strategy that the pro-choice movement has brought to bear on behalf of reproductive freedom. A lot of women (including me) have been lulled into complacency, thinking that what was won by Roe v. Wade could not REALLY be overturned. Well, Michelman shows in clear, passionate and detailed language, how the Christian Right is putting into place a system of forced childbearing -- for every woman, except those rich enough to go to some other state or some other nation that still believe in women's rights and equality. In light of the Alito nomination to the Supreme Court, this book is a must read. It catapulted me out of my lethargy and complacency. I want to DO something, so that my daughter-in-law, or my granddaughter, don't face the back-alley butchery of an illegal abortion.

This book felt like a shot of reality through my understanding of what is going on in the political world that involves abortion rights.Like many in my generation I had no clue what kind of actual threat we are actually facing. The book reads like a clarifying account of the challenges for reproductive rights advocates have to face when fighting the anti-choice zealots. More women need to undertsand the current situation, and I'd recommend starting here with this book.

Kate Michelman reminds us that we are a Democracy and regardless of what each and every one of us believes, we have the right to choose our beliefs. Highly recommended!

I was very impressed by this book. Prior to reading it, I was (moderately) pro-life. Michelman convinced me I was wrong. She makes an eloquent argument for the pro-choice side. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an open mind on the abortion issue. I would quibble with a few of her arguments- e.g. parental notification, but I still think she makes a strong case.