A powerful collection of interviews of people who dealt with abortion while it was illegal in the US, from doctors who remember wards full of septic cases dying every day, to people who provided abortions to desperate women, to the police who prosecuted them. In addition, there's a short but comprehensive overview of the history of abortion in the US and basic morbidity and mortality statistics associated with abortion. I felt that Miller took an even-handed, un-biased approach to her interviews, which let the facts and memories speak even more clearly. I would recommend this book to anyone involved in reproductive rights discussions, no matter their beliefs. ( )

This book does not politicize abortion, it just tells stories like mine. The truth - in their own words, unvarnished and without an agenda. Making something illegal does not stop it at all, it creates a flourishing underground. The anti-abortion movement has forgotten about Prohibition! This should be required reading for every politician who aspires to be a lawmaker. Everyone who does not have a uterus should read this book; if women began attempting to regulate testicles - this entire debate would vanish.
No one wants to have an abortion. My story is like Janet's - I was in an abusive relationship, and I was on the pill....if it is 99% effective and you have 30 years of active fertility (let’s say from ages 15 to 45) and you cycle 13 times a year (every 28 days) and you NEVER miss a pill and you are married to someone who believes it is his right to use his wife as he wants, when he wants. Then you have 390 chances in your life when it is possible to become pregnant - if you use the pill faithfully - you will face 3.9 unintended pregnancies during your life.

If you think about it and ask around, I bet you will hardly ever find a woman who planned, in detail, each of her pregnancies. Nearly every woman - since the dawn of time - has had the experience of saying to herself, "huh...I'm pregnant, I wasn't expecting that". How she deals with it will be exclusively related to the place in her life she is. I desperately wanted another child, but knew if I remained pregnant at that point in my life, I would likely be beaten to death (along with the unborn child). As a mother, I already loved my child enough not to put him/her through dying a death like that. He/She deserved better from me - the best thing I could do - the only thing I could do- was protect my unborn child, myself, and ultimately the other child I already had (my 7 year old) - was to NOT have that baby and try to finally get away from him once and for all. The problem was that even though he had left me, he kept coming back - after he knew I had an abortion he was so angry that he left for good! I will forever be indebted to the spirit of that child - because that child's mere temporary existence did what I had not been able to do - he/she freed us from the abuse we had been suffering!

I believe the spirit simply went back wherever he/she had been and waited to return to me. I have another child now - i was able to have that child because I had a medically safe abortion that did not harm my reproductive system. That same spirit returned to me and is now an utterly amazing child who is being raised in a positive, happy, abuse free environment surrounded by love.

I am telling you that the unborn speak for themselves. There have been millions if not trillions of abortions since the dawn of womankind. The ancient Egyptians performed abortions. Do you not believe that these spirits return to Earth in another body? Because if you don't then there are a whole lot of spirits God created who never have had the opportunity to change mankind. I simply believe God is more efficient than that! Why create a spirit that will never touch anyone else's life? It doesn't make sense! My spirit returned to me and I believe the others do to - if not to the same mother than to another. And each time, the mother is touched. She appreciates the child even if it is not a good time to carry and birth that child. I assure you - if it is not a good time to be pregnant, she would have rather not conceived than to have to deal with the aftermath of an abortion.
If someone had forced me to have my baby the first time I conceived him - they would have been signing my death warrant and likely the other child I already had too - I simply asked the spirit to return later to me, when things were safe. I do not believe I murdered my unborn child. I postponed his birth. I have seen children in the hospital die from abuse - they do not deserve it and no one will ever be able to tell me it would not have been better had that child not been born.

If you love your daughter you will tell her your stories and share this book. Most of the tragedy the book portrays was due to the secrecy surrounding abortion. Well, that and men's control over a woman's access to birth control..Ever read the Handmaid's tale?
Pro Choice is just that…a choice, you do not have to choose abortion if it is not right for you. Most Americans are horrified by the thought that in China, women are only allowed one child, therefore forced to abort all others. How is forcing a woman to have a baby any different than forcing her not to? What kind of dictatorship do you want to live in? If God did not approve of abortion, he would not have given humans the knowledge that it was possible. God does not make mistakes. Pro-Life people are terrible Christians who do not trust their God and believe Him to be flawed. My God is not flawed; he gave me knowledge that would save my life. I trusted that knowledge implicitly – just like Abraham! ( )