Michelle Goldberg's "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism" was a disturbing look at a movement that most on the moderate-to-left spectrum find instinctively repulsive. And yet, she covered her material with considerable humanity, avoiding the easy jabs at fundamentalism that have become commonplace in "debates" about religion and its place in the modern (western) world. Though an unapologetic secularist, she avoided the us-and-them mentality of new atheism, instead focusing on issues that could easily unite non-believers and the many among the devout who have no desire to see their faith become an institutionalized tool of demagogues.
"The Means of Reproduction" is better still. The scope is broader, but the journalism is no less incisive. It combines compelling stories of individual women fighting for reproductive rights - and, in some instances, provides empathetic accounts of women who support traditional norms - with hard facts. This is a fascinating, often grim, often moving, and occasionally uplifting look at a series of issues that, despite the headlines they generate, play a tiny role in North America relative to the rest of the world, in particular the Global South. Ms. Goldberg deftly navigates the issues without falling prey to the cultural jingoism of the right nor the toxic relativism of the left. The latter is especially prevalent in issues related to genital mutilation, where it has taken on an anti-colonial symbolism that, for many, trumps its overwhelmingly negative health effects.
In addition to the present scene, Ms. Goldberg provides a history of the schizophrenic political nature of family planning initiatives that is worthy of a book in its own right. If there is one problem with this book, it's that it could be two.
The objective yet impassioned story that Ms. Goldberg weaves is too compelling to be ignored. In a perfect world, we would base our debates about things as grave as reproductive rights around fine works like this, and not around the crowds that gather at abortion clinics.
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