This Common Secret

December 3, 2007
In rational, compassionate and honest language, Wicklund chronicles more than 20 years as a medical doctor and women's health provider with a "fundamental commitment to patients and to the cause of keeping reproductive rights safe and legal," a commitment that would put herself and her family under direct threat from anti-abortion extremists, and cause her to adopt disguises and even a personal bodyguard in order to continue her work. Wicklund's story is gripping and poignant, not only for its numerous personal accounts-including Wicklund's own experience terminating her pregnancy-but in her consideration of current and proposed reproductive rights legislation; in addition to eye-opening statistics ("In 2006, 87% of counties in the United States had no abortion provider"), Wicklund provides a fine resource guide for further reading. Though a digression concerning her parents' unrelated health issues derails the narrative, and she fails to discuss abortion law in other developed countries, this topical memoir will make a compelling read for anyone interested in women's health and reproductive rights in America.

January 14, 2008
In rational, compassionate and honest language, Wicklund chronicles more than 20 years as a medical doctor and women's health provider with a "fundamental commitment to patients and to the cause of keeping reproductive rights safe and legal," a commitment that would put herself and her family under direct threat from anti-abortion extremists, and cause her to adopt disguises and even a personal bodyguard in order to continue her work. Wicklund's story is gripping and poignant, not only for its numerous personal accounts-including Wicklund's own experience terminating her pregnancy-but in her consideration of current and proposed reproductive rights legislation; in addition to eye-opening statistics ("In 2006, 87% of counties in the United States had no abortion provider"), Wicklund provides a fine resource guide for further reading. Though a digression concerning her parents' unrelated health issues derails the narrative, and she fails to discuss abortion law in other developed countries, this topical memoir will make a compelling read for anyone interested in women's health and reproductive rights in America.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2007
Whether one is pro-choice or not, there can be little doubt that the women Wicklund presents, who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy, face a life-changing situation. Nor can there be little doubt of their need for someone, anyone, to offer compassion and wise counsel. For Wicklund when she was in the same situation more than 30 years ago, there was no one. She underwent a safe, legal abortion that was, however, totally lacking in human kindness, and that was when she determined to devote herself to women's reproductive health as a midwife and, later, a physician. Once out of med school, she practiced first at one Midwest abortion clinic, then another, and eventually traveled between three states and three different clinics, all the while dodging aggressive anti-choice activists who threatened her and her family members? lives. As Wicklund endeavors to demonstrate, though her story is harrowing, the stories of the women she serves are becoming even more so as the number of obstacles blocking their reproductive choices increases, thanks to ever more conservative legislators.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)