This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor [Paperback]

Susan Wicklund (Author), Alex Kesselheim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 2008

This raw and riveting memoir gives an intimate first-hand account of the perilous state of women's choice in America. In "This Common Secret", Dr Susan Wicklund chronicles her emotional and dramatic twenty-year career on the front lines of the abortion war. Growing up in working class, rural Wisconsin, Susan had her own painful abortion at a young age. It was not until she became a doctor that she realised how many women shared her ordeal of an unwanted pregnancy - and how hidden this common experience remains.This is the story of a profession that means listening to women and helping them through one of the most traumatic and controversial events in their lives, but which also requires its doctors to wear a bullet-proof vest and carry a.38 calibre revolver. In it, Susan and her patients share their own anguished, complicated yet inspiring stories.Through these accounts, Wicklund reveals the truth about the women's clinics that anti-abortion activists portray as little more than slaughterhouses for the unborn. In America the abortion debate is reaching a new pitch, with the Supreme Court titled against women's choice, and state legislatures passing bills to outlaw the practice of abortion. Based on real situations, real women and real dilemmas, this raw and powerful memoir shows what's at stake.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In rational, compassionate and honest language, Wicklund chronicles more than 20 years as a medical doctor and women's health provider with a "fundamental commitment to patients and to the cause of keeping reproductive rights safe and legal," a commitment that would put herself and her family under direct threat from anti-abortion extremists, and cause her to adopt disguises and even a personal bodyguard in order to continue her work. Wicklund's story is gripping and poignant, not only for its numerous personal accounts-including Wicklund's own experience terminating her pregnancy-but in her consideration of current and proposed reproductive rights legislation; in addition to eye-opening statistics ("In 2006, 87% of counties in the United States had no abortion provider"), Wicklund provides a fine resource guide for further reading. Though a digression concerning her parents' unrelated health issues derails the narrative, and she fails to discuss abortion law in other developed countries, this topical memoir will make a compelling read for anyone interested in women's health and reproductive rights in America.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"(This Common Secret) teems with fascinating, often tragic stories... Wicklund's book is a compelling account of the hypocrisy and secrecy that surround this subject." The Guardian "This is shocking stuff, and goes a long way to explaining (Susan Wicklund's) extraordinary sense of being a woman on a mission... Her book... leaves a vivid impression of the damage inflicted on civil society when one side in an important debate resorts to terrorist tactics." The Times"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1 Reprint edition (December 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586486470
• ISBN-13: 978-1586486471
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Abortion & Birth Control

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really makes you admire this woman., February 1, 2008

By 

Chris - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor (Hardcover)

I just finished this book and I cried through half of it. Dr. Wicklund is extremely open about her life and what she's had to go through to provide women with the choice that is their legal right to make. Flying to 3 states every week. Spending 6 days a week away from her family. Death threats. Being surrounded and screamed at by angry protesters in the airport every-single-week for years. Having her house surrounded and her daughter targeted. She constantly fears for her life. Could you do this? Even if you really believed in what you were doing? I can only hope to be as strong as she is.

I will be interested in what reasonable pro-lifers think of this book. As written, Dr. Wicklund is the kind of doctor that they should look as kindly on as possible for them. She believes in real counseling. She sends patients home if she doesn't think they are sure about their choice - and she asks them if they are sure over and over and over. She only performs 1st semester abortions. She reports statutory rapes to Social Services. She's even honest about issues in women's clinics that aren't as well run and works to fix the problems. Does she really deserve the treatment she's subjected to?

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking reality---The intolerance of extremists, February 28, 2008

By 

Lydia Becker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor (Hardcover)

Amazing, shocking, and educative piece of literature. Easy, impressive read. Describes what steps extremists are willing to take who seem to lack the ability to accept, or respect, people's opinions, if they are different from their own. The actions the extremists take border on or sometimes even cross into insanity.
The book offers excellent material for a movie that most likely would turn into a huge success, which may offer the possibility for people like Sue Wicklund to go about their jobs without fear for their lives, help people who are seeking Sue's services to not get harrassed for what they believe needs to be done.
I have the utmost respect for Sue Wicklund and other abortion doctors, as they do not give up, even in the face of danger.
Well done, Sue!!!! A++++++++++++++++

19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make an appointment for a great read!, February 7, 2008

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor (Hardcover)

It is unfortunate and frustrating that women's healthcare and it's provision remains stigmatized in America. In this unique book, Susan Wicklund talks about how she decided to become an abortion provider, and the daily struggles which persevere to deliver the humane and compassionate care which are provided to all women.

Even at my most frustrating job position, I've never had to wear a disguise to slip in the front door. I've also never been stalked by zealous fanatics. This book unapologetically advocates a pro-choice perspective, but it also has a bit of wry humor mixed in. After getting herself worked up what her grandmother would think, Wicklund ultimately learned that relative also supported reproductive freedom, having had a friend who died from an illegal abortion.

The culling of journal entries for this book gives it an additional intimate feel. As a student of the body politic, I've read my share of conventional accounts. But this brings back the doctors voice themselves. Wicklund's is careful to delineate that a doctor (contrasting with the one who had performed her own abortion) must talk with the women about their decision. A truly feminist counseling model respects a woman's right to undergo an abortion procedure, while also making sure that they were not pressured to undergo an abortion. It is the woman themselves who has to decide what they want to do with their own bodies.