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

~ Kate Michelman (Author) "THE ROOM WAS STERILE, SPARSELY DECORATEDTHE ONLY furniture, a rectangular table..." (more)
Key Phrases: hospital review board, abortion ban, health exception, Supreme Court, White House, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Michelman, who was head of NARAL for nearly 20 years, has written a political memoir rebutting the prolife movement's insistence that making abortion illegal is the American way. She declares that pro-choice politicians win elections and that 80% of Americans support a right to choose. More potent are her stories of women affected by laws restricting abortion rights: a teenager who dies rather than disappoint her parents under a parental notification law; a woman who cannot safely deliver her rigid, fatally defective fetus except by late-term abortion; and Michelman herself, who was a young Catholic mother when the end of her marriage forced her to rethink abortion. The book pragmatically discusses the campaigns, political discussions and compromises involved in the battle over legal abortion. Michelman's passion for the issue and the suspense around certain fights, particularly the "partial-birth abortion" law and the gag law eliminating federal funds for clinics mentioning abortion, keep the book readable. However, too much focus on campaigns and strategy and not enough on human interest stories and tactics may make this book too cool for general readers and too broad for an activist's manual. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

In 1969--three years prior to Roe v. Wade--Michelman, as a married, practicing Catholic, had to be adjudged an unfit mother by a panel of male experts to obtain an abortion. Feeling that the historic ruling is now threatened by the appointment of even a single anti-choice judge to the court, NARAL Pro-Choice America's president emerita sounds a wakeup call in this memoir of her fight for reproductive choice and freedom. Her experience changed her into an activist striving to ensure choice as "fundamental to women's health, autonomy and equality." She assumed NARAL leadership just as President Ronald Reagan was reelected with the overwhelming support of the religious Right. Opposed to choice, Reagan nominated like-minded Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, creating a crisis in the pro-choice movement and demonstrating the vulnerability of Roe's protections, which continue under attack today. In telling this story of a struggle transcending her own life, Michelman passionately, compellingly presents a living political drama that affects millions of lives. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Hudson Street Press; 1st Ed. edition (December 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594630062
• ISBN-13: 978-1594630064
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #763,525 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kate Michelman has been the heart and soul of this claim for justice., January 30, 2006

By	Jill Cooper Udall "Jill Cooper" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Equal parts memoir and wakeup call, January 11, 2006

By	Wesley Mullins (Kentucky) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Her Compassion Shines Through, April 18, 2006

By	D. Gillespie "Donna Gillespie" (San Francisco, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.