Lovejoy: A Year in the Life of an Abortion Clinic

by Peter Korn

A gripping and intimate story of lives in conflict as political dilemmas become agonizingly personal gives voice to all points of view and puts a human face on the moral debate over abortion that continues to separate the country's families and friends. Tour.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Womens

306 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

PETER KORN is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, a non-profit woodworking and design school in Rockport, Maine. A furniture maker since 1974, his work has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums.


In addition to writing Why We Make Things and Why It Matters: The Education of a Craftsman, which won the 2014 Maine Literary Award, Korn is the author of several how-to books. These include the best-selling Woodworking Basics: Mastering the Essentials of Craftsmanship (Taunton Press, 2003) and The Woodworker's Guide to Hand Tools (Taunton Press, 1998). The former has been translated and published in both China and South Korea.


Born in 1951, Korn grew up in Philadelphia, where he attended Germantown Friends School. He majored in history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's nuts that this book isn't better known. Shame on Atlantic Press for not marketing it better. Peter Korn has written a page-turner about the people who worked at Lovejoy Surgicenter in Portland, and the protesters outside the doors, in the mid-1990s. That was a time when clinics were being blown up and doctors shot. So there's tension - you come to care about the people inside the clinic, and don't want to see them hurt. Even more compelling are the stories of the girls and women who come in. Interestingly, at Lovejoy, the staff often helped clients decide against abortion. A third of the patients chose to give their babies up for adoption or to keep their babies.

Between the schizophrenics, the drug addicts, the high school girl with an abusive boyfriend and a mother and grandmother who had their own first babies at her age, 17 - Lovejoy gives a glimpse into the realities behind the rhetoric. Great book.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

this author threw in some really weird comments about weight, and you got the feeling he maybe hated women. also, my boss used to work at this clinic and said it is full of inaccuracies. gross.

[Anne Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and compelling. I don't read nonfiction unless it's got enough of a narrative to keep me turning the pages, and this one more than fits the bill. More importantly, it's an unblinkingly honest look at what abortion really means, to the women who face that most difficult of choices, and the medical providers who make that choice possible. Including a detailed description of a second-semester abortion that was very, very hard to read--the sort of thing I could imagine encountering in pro-life literature. And yet I think it would be impossible to read this book and walk away thinking women should be denied that choice.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting look at life inside an abortion clinic. Not taking side, just showing both viewpoints. An interesting, if not thrilling read.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has some really good info in it, it talked about what it was like to work in an abortion clinic. There were times I thought there was a little sugarcoating, for example, it takes the author about 5/6th of the book before we actually get a description of the abortion procedure and what an aborted baby looks like, and even then it is very brief. it deals more with the personalities who work there and the different kind of patients and the way the workers they counsel women. It really only profiles three employees though, and it could have been much more exhaustive.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very enlightening to hear about the various "types" of patients and the doctors and administrators. I found some of it a bit hard to believe, and from reading other reviews, maybe bc there was some embellishing. It was still a perspective that was new and I appreciate that. I also appreciate the time he spent with "the other side". There are a lot of nuances I hadn't really considered before with the whole "business". The writing style could get a little odd, but it was still an easy read

[Amy Ban · Rating 4 out of 5]

Page turner...really makes u feel what really was happening in the mid-90s with abortion clinics specifically this one.
Do note, it is a summary of the years events and can only believe that this writer was limited with some of the cases. These cases do allow you to understand the struggles on a woman who is facing the big choice.

[Laura]

My doctor's office is across the street. When I go for an appointment, the picketers perk up, then lose excitement when they see me veer off into the other direction.