Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now

Description

With an anti-abortion majority on the Supreme Court, and several states with only one abortion clinic, many reproductive rights activists are on the defensive, hoping to hold on to abortion in a few places and cases. This spirited book shows how we can start winning again. Jenny Brown uncovers a century of legal abortion in the U.S.-until 1873-the century of illegal abortion that followed, and how the women's liberation movement of the 1960s really won abortion rights. Drawing inspiration and lessons from that radical movement, the successful fight to make the morning-after pill available over the counter, and the recent mass movement to repeal Ireland's abortion ban, Without Apology is an indispensable guide for organizers today. Brown argues that we need to stop emphasizing rare, tragic cases and deferring to experts and pollsters, and get back to the basic ideas that won us abortion in the first place: Women telling the full truth of their own experience, arguing to change minds, and making abortion and birth control a keystone demand in the movement for women's freedom.

Jenny Brown has campaigned for abortion and reproductive rights for more than thirty years. She was an editor for Labor Notes magazine and co-authored How to Jump-Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers. She writes, teaches, and organises with the feminist group National Women's Liberation and is the author of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Women's Work.

By examining the failings and triumphs of previous movements for abortion rights, Without Apology manages to make perfect sense of the current political moment. This book will turn concerned individuals into activists and help beleaguered activists remember how it feels to believe that we can win. -- Amelia Bonow, author of Shout Your Abortion Without Apology draws an exhilarating line in the sand between reformers and visionaries, between near-sighted regulation and true reproductive freedom. Jenny Brown has given us a frank, full-throated gift in an era when abortion rights are threatened by hostility and timidity both. Without Apology made me want to tweet about my abortion 'til the day I die.' -- Nona Willis Aronowitz Her call to "move feminism toward bolder, more universal demands" is likely to strike a chord with young progressives. This laser-focused polemic makes its case effectively. * Publisher's Weekly * A powerful and extensively researched case for a militant approach to winning reproductive rights -- Emily Janakiram * The Baffler *