A gripping and intimate story of lives in conflict as political dilemmas become agonizingly personal gives voice to all points of view and puts a human face on the moral debate over abortion that continues to separate the country's families and friends. Tour.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Lovejoy Surgicenter is an abortion clinic in Portland, Oregon, but it sits at the very epicenter of the nation's most wrenching issues. Oregon is a largely liberal state with few restrictions on abortion. It is also home to more than its share of extremist groups, including the anti-abortion organization Advocates for Life Ministries. Lovejoy Surgicenter is the site of some 4,000 abortions a year and the target of numerous protests as well as a handful of firebombings. Journalist Peter Korn provides a valuable look at the abortion issue with this absorbing profile of the clinic, the people who run it, the women who use its services, and the groups who will go to almost any length to shut it down. He doesn't turn away from any of the difficult details, whether it is the procedure itself or the methods of the people who would make that procedure illegal once again.
From Publishers Weekly
Perhaps a disinterested book on abortion isn't possible, but Korn's desensitized account doesn't serve either. Focusing on Lovejoy Surgicenter in Portland, Ore., he takes us through 1995 in a for-profit abortion clinic founded in 1974 by Allene Klass, who remains its administrator. There is much absorbing information here about daily routines; the procedures available (unlike many clinics, Lovejoy will perform abortions after 21 weeks); patients, staff and their joint anguish and fears in coping with right-to-life protesters. Lovejoy's unrelenting foe is infamous Andrew Burnett and his Advocates for Life, against whom, individually and collectively, the clinic won an uncollectible judgment of $8.2 million for punitive damages. (Lovejoy hopes to sell the judgment to a third party for collection). His depiction of the clinic is enormously informative, but Korn, a columnist for Biz magazine, undermines his book with intemperate snideness. He notes on many occasions, for example, that the 56-year-old Klass wears miniskirts, and he mentions that her heir apparent, Carye, who weighs 200 pounds, "does not possess the personality of an obese person." He doesn't verify gossip, such as that Lovejoy's chief surgeon, who earns $300,000 annually working a 20-hour week, moonlights at other abortion clinics. The author also betrays a confidence, telling us that a Lovejoy doctor secretly performed a free abortion for a staff member and naming them both. Tighter editing would have made this a worthier book.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful read,
By
This review is from: Lovejoy: A Year in the Life of an Abortion Clinic (Hardcover)
It's nuts that this book isn't reviewed or better known. Shame on Atlantic Press for not marketing it better. Peter Korn has written a page-turner about the people who worked at Lovejoy Surgicenter in Portland, and the protesters outside the doors, in the mid-1990s. That was a time when clinics were being blown up and doctors shot. So there's tension - you come to care about the people inside the clinic, and don't want to see them hurt. Even more compelling are the stories of the girls and women who come in. People who don't believe that abortion should be legal seem to think that abortion providers work to convince women to have abortions. In fact, at Lovejoy, in any case, the staff worked to help women make the choice that would be best for them. A third of the patients chose to give their babies up for adoption or to keep their babies.
For all those who think they know better than those women, this book might shake that certainty. Between the schizophrenics, the drug addicts, the high school girl with an abusive boyfriend and a mother and grandmother who had their own first babies at her age, 17 - Lovejoy gives a glimpse into the realities behind the rhetoric. Great book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging read!,
By Bean Slap (COLORADO) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Lovejoy: A Year in the Life of an Abortion Clinic (Hardcover)
I'm pro-choice but I wanted to learn more about the individuals who deal with crazy protesters and threats to their lives as well as the day to day activities and patients that these people meet. The book provided details about these exact things. Though its dated it still gave me a history of how its been in the past and this is useful when looking at the present. The most noted anti-choice zealot that was featured was ego-centric Andrew Burnett. The book provided me with more elaboration about the issue.Overall a very good and engaging read that read more like a story than a dry text.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovejoy,
By
This review is from: Lovejoy: A Year in the Life of an Abortion Clinic (Hardcover)
This book is quite an eye opener. As a long time choice supporter, this book takes an objective and insightful look at the inner workings of an abortion clinic. This book doesn't sugar coat anything, it lays it all out there, from the doctors, patients, clinic employees and the procedures that are performed there and the counseling that also occurs. I work for the nation's largest provider of abortions, but as an administrative worker I have never seen this side of the business. This book really underscores whatever position you have on this issue. It truly did reinforce my beliefs despite the details and sometimes uncomfortably descriptive language. It made me realize what abortion truly is and how I am proud that I live in a country where women are free to chose, and to control their reproductive rights. This book is a great read, wonderfully written, and very informative. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be informed and to gain knowledge about freedom of choice and abortion in this country. This microcosm of a story, truly illustrates the national debate in full light. A great book.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
