Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Published to coincide
with the 50th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, historian Felicia
Kornbluh delivers an urgent book about two key reproductive rights victories in
New York which set the tone for the nation - and exemplified the achievements
and shortfalls of the era's feminismA Woman's Life Is a Human Life is the story of two movements in New York State that shaped the political landscape on reproductive rights: the fight to decriminalize abortion and that against sterilization abuse, at a time when sterilization was disproportionately proposed as birth control to Black, Latinx, and poor women. These victories occurred just before and after the Roe v. Wade decision and cast vital new light on it. From dissident Democrats and feminists who brought the first abortion reform laws, to progressive ministers and rabbis who led the nation's largest abortion referral service, to feminist radicals who invented the "speak out" for making the personal political, A Woman's Life Is a Human Life abounds in stories of the diverse activists who changed the law and built foundations for the broad vision that today is called reproductive justice. With firsthand accounts and rarely seen archival sources--including those of her mother, who wrote the first draft of New York's law decriminalizing abortion, and their across-the-hall neighbor, Dr. Helen Rodr guez-Tr as, a Puerto Rican doctor and leader in combating sterilization abuse--Felicia Kornbluh delivers a rich history of the forgotten grassroots efforts that defined the fight for reproductive justice in New York and the nation.
Synopsis
Published to
coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, historian
Felicia Kornbluh delivers an urgent book about two movement victories in New
York that forever changed the politics of reproductive rights nationally
A Woman's Life Is a
Human Life is the story
of two movements that transformed the politics of reproductive rights: the
fight to decriminalize abortion and the campaign against sterilization
abuse, at a time when sterilization was disproportionately proposed as
birth control to Black, Latinx, and poor women. Their victories occurred just
before and after
Roe v. Wade, and their histories cast new
light on the case and the fate of reproductive rights and justice today.
From dissident Democrats and members of a rising feminist movement who refashioned
abortion laws, to progressive ministers and rabbis who led the nation's
largest abortion referral service, to Puerto Rican activists who
introduced sterilization abuse to the reproductive rights agenda and Black
women who took the cause global,
A Woman's Life Is a Human Life chronicles
how activists changed the law and demanded reproductive justice. The
first in-depth study of a winning campaign to change a state's abortion law, with
firsthand accounts and previously unseen sources--including from her
mother, who drafted New York's law decriminalizing abortion, and
across-the-hall neighbor, Dr. Helen Rodr guez-Tr as, a Puerto Rican doctor
and leader in the movement against sterilization abuse--Felicia Kornbluh
shows how grassroots action overcame the odds--and how it might work today.