Synopses & Reviews
One doctor's raw and riveting memoir, contrasting the headline-grabbing political rhetoric with the contours of her life, and the lives of her patients.
In This Common Secret Dr. Susan Wicklund chronicles her emotional and dramatic twenty-year career on the front lines of the abortion war. Growing up in working class, rural Wisconsin, Wicklund had her own painful abortion at a young age. It was not until she became a doctor that she realized how many women shared her ordeal of an unwanted pregnancy and how hidden this common experience remains.
This is the story of Susan's love for a profession that means listening to women and helping them through one of the most pivotal and controversial events in their lives. Hers is also a calling that means sleeping on planes and commuting between clinics in different states and that requires her to wear a bulletproof vest and to carry a .38 caliber revolver. This is also the story of the women whom Susan serves, women whose options are increasingly limited.
Through these intimate, complicated, and inspiring accounts, Wicklund reveals the truth about the women's clinics that anti-abortion activists portray as little more than slaughterhouses for the unborn. As we enter the most fevered political fight over abortion America has ever seen, this raw and powerful memoir shows us what is at stake.
Review
"Through [Wicklund's] story is harrowing, the stories of the women she serves are becoming even more so as the number of obstacles blocking their reproductive choices increase, thanks to ever more conservative legislators." Booklist
Review
"Too often the abortion debate is framed in abstractions about the 'unborn' and their rights. This Common Secret puts flesh and blood on the issue and gives it a woman's face. Thank you, Susan Wicklund, both for your amazing courage as an abortion provider and for your wonderful honesty and openness as a writer." Barbara Ehrenreich
Review
"Ms. Wicklund's book, This Common Secret, is a rarity in this day and age the odyssey of a courageous woman who refuses to compromise her morality and is willing to pay an enormous price for acting on her compassion and sense of justice without ever stooping to a flicker of self-pity. This book is at times funny, often horrifying, and, like Ms. Wicklund herself, always inspiring." Margot Kidder
Review
"This Common Secret is a riveting and heartbreaking memoir from the front lines of the abortion wars. Susan Wicklund is a true American hero. You will be amazed, enraged and inspired by her story." Maryanne Vollers, author of Ghosts of Mississippi, Lone Wolf, and co-author of Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole
Review
"All this is either admirable or reprehensible, depending on your position on abortion, but Wicklund and co-author Kesselheim have no doubts: She is eligible for sainthood right now....In a genre known for self-celebration, this is Self-Celebration." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Dr. Wicklund chronicles her emotional and dramatic 20-year career on the front lines of the abortion war. Through her intimate, complicated, and inspiring accounts, Wicklund reveals the truth about the women's clinics and the lives of her patients.
Synopsis
One doctor's raw and riveting memoir, contrasting the headline-grabbing political rhetoric with the contours of her life, and the lives of her patients
About the Author
Susan Wicklund has worked in the field of women's reproductive health for more than twenty years. For much of that time she has been on the front lines of the abortion war, both as a doctor and as a spokeswoman for women's rights. She has been interviewed by numerous leading media outlets, including
60 Minutes and
Fresh Air.
Alan Kesselheim is a full-time freelance writer from Bozeman, Montana. This Common Secret is his ninth book.