Katha Pollitt

The author is a renowned writer for such outlets as The Nation. She tells stories on herself, often with some self-deprecatory sense, and always with humor...except for one or two places where the anger overcomes the humor, but even then, humor is able to sneak up on you and surprise you in the middle of a rant about global warming or women's role in household chores. She is candid about her life, her loves, and her experience with the Communist Party and many of the fellow travelers. It is show more interesting to see such history from the eyes of one who lived it, who answered the door as a youngster to FBI agents, and can now speak of the experience with the candor that comes from distance. I don't agree with her on everything, but I find a lot in her writing to agree with, even more to make me think, and a number of things to celebrate. Well worth the time. show less

I love Pollitt, so I knew I was going to love this book. I am so tired of all the hand-wringing way we talk about abortion in this country, and this book was a near-perfect antidote to that. I want to buy copies and press them into the hands of anti-choicers in my life. In the meantime, it's certainly changed the way I talk about abortion and reproductive justice issues. Not that I was so apologetic about it in the first place, but still.

Pair with Mother Nature by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy for show more straight talk perfection. show less

Unapologetic, for good reason

PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by Katha Pollitt (Picador, $25).

Katha Pollitt, long-time columnist for The Nation, is an unabashed, unreconstructed liberal with a capital “L.” She’s also not afraid of the f-word—feminist—which makes PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights a fact-filled, no-holds-barred argument for the right of women to make their own choices when it comes to whether or not they wish to be pregnant so refreshing.

Pollitt’s criticism is that, show more by focusing on “safe, legal and rare” as a caveat, reproductive rights and freedom are made vulnerable to death by a thousand cuts, and we are now seeing it happen. Women do not need to justify, explain, or make excuses for wanting access to abortion on demand, she argues. By acting as if termination is not a reasonable choice, we have, in fact, made it a choice that can be impossible to access, given the creep toward “regulating” abortion.

She’s not dancing around the topic to make it more palatable; instead, she busts myths about “personhood” (a legal term that the anti-abortion movement has been championing as part of the current attack on safe and legal abortion) and about who gets abortions and why.

Her bottom line: Women don’t need to justify why they want an abortion to anyone. Not wanting to be pregnant should be enough. Women are not idiots; they can make choices about pregnancy all by themselves.

That doesn’t mean she’s overly polemical; using historical context as well as sociological, medical and scientific sources, Pollitt offers reason, nuance and facts to an otherwise overwhelmingly emotional debate filled with sound bites and misinformation.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com show less

Every so often, over the years, I come across a book that tremendously sharpens and solidifies my thoughts on significant issues that draw on my own values system. This is one such book. While the books subtitle implies that it is about abortion rights -- which is most certainly is -- it goes way beyond that to the role and rights of women in our society, and, of course, it does that because abortion rights cannot be separated from the total female experience. Make no mistake about it, the show more author covers abortion issues with laser-like efficiency, from every possible angle. As the book title states, she is "pro" -- but wait, "pro" what? She even gets into the various shades of what that means. Pro abortion, pro choice, pro death, pro what? But even as she presents the many "pro" arguments, she offers abundant "anti" views, and discusses them in great depth, never being too biased to state their merits, where merits exist. If I see any downsides to this tome, it comes in two areas. The first is that the second half of the book feels more relaxed and, thus, unfocused, compared to the first half. Part of that comes from the utter efficiency and clarity with which she "presents" her case. But just like the Q&A after many presentations gets stuck with audience questions that were amply answered during the presentation, there is a certain level of redundancy toward the end as she tries to fill any possible gaps in what came earlier. The second issue of concern is her lack of acknowledgment of the conservative right's faith-based arguments against abortion and woman having any rights in general. There is indeed a section dealing entirely with Bible verses, which she uses effectively against the "Anti" position. Also, at another point, the author points out how differently the liberal, more secular, science-based, pro community drives support for its "cause" versus the Christian faith-based anti community. What she skips over is how very differently the faith-based mind works. In its essence, faith says something exists for no other reason than because someone said "because I said so" and for no other reason. The book has great value for those who value science and logic. And it will give give values clarification to those who have religious foundations but still appreciate science and logic. But, let's face it, for a great many fundamentalists, this book will sail right over their heads, and be damned as the devil's work -- just because. show less