Back Rooms: Voices from the Illegal Abortion Era

By: Ellen Messer and Kathryn E. May

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: This landmark history vividly conveys the stark choices women with unwanted pregnancies faced before abortion was legalised. Here are poignant stories of illegal "back room" abortions and harrowing accounts of self-induced miscarriages, as well as the testimony of women who were forced to give birth on society's terms, not their own. The chapters are individual stories of women facing difficult circumstances in desperate need of solutions - from fleeing the country to secure a safe abortion to searching in a back alley for a dangerous one. The book highlights the attitudes about abortion before the Roe v. Wade decision, as well as views of the doctors who performed the procedures and the activities of advocates for abortion rights.