Until the late 1960s, the authorities on abortion were for the most part men—politicians, clergy, lawyers, physicians, all of whom had an interest in regulating women’s bodies. Rarely, however, do we hear the voices of ordinary women who have been in some way touched by abortion. Their thoughts owe more to human circumstance than to ideology and when we exclude their voices from the conversation we run the risk of talking about abortion only in the abstract.
Without Apology contains the stories of women whose experience with abortion is more personal. Their experiences are presented alongside the reflections of abortion providers and clinic support staff as well as activists, feminists, and scholars.
Challenging us all, whether pro-life or pro-choice advocates, to examine our assumptions and presumptions, these frank and unsettling accounts aim to incite thoughtful discussion of this hotly contested issue.
We are featuring a few excerpts from the book in a series called Day One, the first attempt at telling the truth about abortion in Canada.
Day One: Judith Mintz
An Abortion Palimpsest: Writing the Hidden Stories of Our Bodies
Day One: Jess Woolford
But I Kept All These Things, and Pondered Them in My Heart
Day One: Carolyn Egan and Linda Gardner
Reproductive Freedom
Day One: Natalie Lochwin
Blinded by the Right: My Past as an Anti-abortion Activist
Day One: Ruth Miller
“Do you think I will go to hell for this?”
