Generation Roe

January 14, 2013
In her first book, journalist and women’s health advocate Erdreich delivers a passionate study of the past, current, and future state of the pro-choice movement in America. Forty years after Roe v. Wade, abortion remains such a polarizing and untouchable subject that few abortion care providers feel they can discuss what they do with any candor, and 87 percent of U.S. counties don’t have an abortion provider. Even though abortion is one of the most common surgical procedures in the country, medical schools offer little formal training on the subject. Unapologetically pro-choice, Erdreich attends a pro-life march, visits a “crisis pregnancy center,” interviews women about their abortions, and relates the stories of activists, practitioners, and medical students on the front lines. Assessing the history and legislative battles on both sides of the issue, she focuses on the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, which, though it gave women the right to make private health decisions, left states to regulate those decisions, especially after the first trimester. As Erdreich explains, this restriction paved the way for the abortion laws, passed after 1992, which impose “undue burdens” (mandatory ultrasounds, parental or spousal notification, or both, and waiting periods) on pregnant women. As a result, the current generation of abortion workers faces an environment that is far more hostile toward abortion access. This is a thoughtful and comprehensive treatment of one side of an emotionally charged topic. Penn Whaling, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency.

January 1, 2013
In her first book, pro-abortion rights activist Erdreich tries to bring some clarity and reason to the arguments around a woman's right to choose in light of recent attempts to restrict that right. A new generation of women takes Roe v. Wade for granted, but the author sees this cavalier attitude engendering a dangerous apathy and shortsightedness in terms of checking the encroachments on that landmark law that have been gradually gaining since the Hyde Amendment of 1976 (prohibiting federal funding for abortion). In several sagaciously researched essays, Erdreich presents some of the voices of women who choose abortion and why. She examines the nuances that we need to hear, even if the reasons cause others to examine their own beliefs and biases; the lack of training in abortion by medical students and others in the medical profession, even though abortion has become one of the most common surgical procedures in America; the misrepresentation in film and media about women who choose abortion; and a litany of creeping restrictions on the law across the country. Since President Barack Obama's election in 2008, harassment of and violence against abortion providers and clinics have risen, exemplified most tragically by the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita doctor shot by protestors in May 2009. Despite the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances law of 1994, clinics and providers are continually threatened, scaring potential providers away and closing doors to needy women. Erdreich points to the enormous headway the LGBTQ rights movement has made in comparison to the taboos still surrounding women's basic right to choice. An honest probing of law, public perception and conscience in the abortion debate.

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