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Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion
Although Roe v. Wade identified abortion as a constitutional right over 40 years ago, it bears stigma--a proverbial scarlet A--in the United States. Millions participate in or benefit from an abortion, but few want to reveal that they have done so. Approximately one in five pregnancies in the US ends in abortion. Why is something so common, which has been legal so long, still a source of shame and secrecy? Why is it so regularly debated by politicians, and so seldom divulged from friend to friend, or loved one to loved one? This book explores the personal stigma that prevents many from sharing their abortion experiences with friends and family in private conversation, and the structural stigma that keeps it that way. It argues persuasively that America would benefit from working to reverse such stigma, providing readers with tools that may help them model ways of doing so.
Our silence around private experience with abortion has distorted our public discourse. Both proponents and opponents of abortion's legality tend to focus on the extraordinary cases. This tendency keeps the public discourse polarized and contentious, and keeps the focus on the cases that occur the least. Katie Watson focuses instead on the remaining 95% of abortion cases. The book gives the reflective reader a more accurate impression of what the majority of American abortion practice really looks like. It explains why this public/private disjuncture exists, what it costs us, and what can be gained by including ordinary abortion in public debate.
As Scarlet A explains, abortion has been a constitutional right for nearly 45 years, and it should remain one. What we need now are productive conversations about abortion ethics: how could or should people decide whether to exercise this right? Watson paints a rich, rarely seen picture of how patients and doctors currently think and act, and ultimately invites readers to draw their own conclusions.
Our silence around private experience with abortion has distorted our public discourse. Both proponents and opponents of abortion's legality tend to focus on the extraordinary cases. This tendency keeps the public discourse polarized and contentious, and keeps the focus on the cases that occur the least. Katie Watson focuses instead on the remaining 95% of abortion cases. The book gives the reflective reader a more accurate impression of what the majority of American abortion practice really looks like. It explains why this public/private disjuncture exists, what it costs us, and what can be gained by including ordinary abortion in public debate.
As Scarlet A explains, abortion has been a constitutional right for nearly 45 years, and it should remain one. What we need now are productive conversations about abortion ethics: how could or should people decide whether to exercise this right? Watson paints a rich, rarely seen picture of how patients and doctors currently think and act, and ultimately invites readers to draw their own conclusions.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2018
62 people are currently reading
1844 people want to read
About the author
Katie Watson
32 books8 followersKatherine "Katie" L. Watson, JD, is an adjunct associate professor in the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
March 11, 2018
Abortion is a difficult topic to tackle. Everyone has an opinion, and almost everyone also feels very strongly about those opinions. I myself have always been a big proponent of women being allowed to make the choice that is right for them, which means that the government needs to make sure that healthy and safe options are available. But even though I have read other books about abortion before, Scarlet A offered a lot of new insights and was very well written. Thanks to Oxford University Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Key to Scarlet A is what Katie Watson refers to as 'ordinary abortion'. Initially I was confused as to what she was referring to, but once I got it I understood just how important it is to discuss. Watson is right when she says that most conversations around abortion are about those extraordinary cases such as rape, incest, or immediate danger to the well being of the mother and/or child. I myself have never had an abortion, but know friends who have, and not for the reasons mentioned just now. These are the ordinary abortions that Watson discusses in Scarlet A, the abortions that are done because the women aren't ready to be parents, or because they know they don't have the money for a child, or because they simply don't want children and made a mistake. These types of abortions make up the majority of abortion cases, yet they are also the ones that aren't discussed openly and that come with a lot of shame. It is incredibly important that books like Scarlet A address the experiences of these women, especially when they do it as well as Watson does.
Watson accomplishes something almost miraculous with Scarlet A, which is making the abortion debate accessible and, as far as possible, understandable. As an academic, she makes sure to either explain her jargon or to avoid it as much as possible. She shares her own interest and thoughts throughout the book, without influencing her readers, which makes Scarlet A feel more personable than many other books out there. She includes to stories of many different women, and men, about their experiences with abortion, the shame they felt, or that they didn't feel, the anger they faced, the support they received, how their thoughts have evolved since the abortion. Scarlet A also looks into the different Supreme Court cases since Roe vs. Wade that addressed abortion, discusses the terms used in the abortion debate, and much more. I walked away from Scarlet A with a lot more information than I had before, but also with a new perspective on a number of related issues.
Katie Watson manages to make Scarlet A an incredibly accessible book, opening up a debate that is famously tricky and full of loopholes. I'd recommend that everyone interested in knowing more about abortions, about the stories of people who have gone through one, about the politics and the ethics around the debate, read Scarlet A.
Key to Scarlet A is what Katie Watson refers to as 'ordinary abortion'. Initially I was confused as to what she was referring to, but once I got it I understood just how important it is to discuss. Watson is right when she says that most conversations around abortion are about those extraordinary cases such as rape, incest, or immediate danger to the well being of the mother and/or child. I myself have never had an abortion, but know friends who have, and not for the reasons mentioned just now. These are the ordinary abortions that Watson discusses in Scarlet A, the abortions that are done because the women aren't ready to be parents, or because they know they don't have the money for a child, or because they simply don't want children and made a mistake. These types of abortions make up the majority of abortion cases, yet they are also the ones that aren't discussed openly and that come with a lot of shame. It is incredibly important that books like Scarlet A address the experiences of these women, especially when they do it as well as Watson does.
Watson accomplishes something almost miraculous with Scarlet A, which is making the abortion debate accessible and, as far as possible, understandable. As an academic, she makes sure to either explain her jargon or to avoid it as much as possible. She shares her own interest and thoughts throughout the book, without influencing her readers, which makes Scarlet A feel more personable than many other books out there. She includes to stories of many different women, and men, about their experiences with abortion, the shame they felt, or that they didn't feel, the anger they faced, the support they received, how their thoughts have evolved since the abortion. Scarlet A also looks into the different Supreme Court cases since Roe vs. Wade that addressed abortion, discusses the terms used in the abortion debate, and much more. I walked away from Scarlet A with a lot more information than I had before, but also with a new perspective on a number of related issues.
Katie Watson manages to make Scarlet A an incredibly accessible book, opening up a debate that is famously tricky and full of loopholes. I'd recommend that everyone interested in knowing more about abortions, about the stories of people who have gone through one, about the politics and the ethics around the debate, read Scarlet A.
June 20, 2018
I'm floored by this book. As someone who has spent much time thinking about abortion and whose medical practice includes performing abortions, I thought I would read this book and see the old arguments rehashed. I was hopeful for maybe one or two insights. However, the author proposes a new paradigm for talking about this difficult topic--something with which I've been personally struggling over the last two years. Watson is clear about her position on the topic (pro-choice) but I didn't encounter any of the troubling rhetoric I've heard from "our side" in the entire book. Instead, she presents a nuanced analysis of the debate from different angles and on different plains (legal, social, ethical, etc). I've been searching for language to frame and communicate my thoughts about abortion. I'm grateful to this author for helping me on that journey.
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May 16, 2022This book contains fairly nuanced discussions of semantics and philosophical approaches to abortion. I was not expecting Peter Singer's work to be referenced. Reading this makes it easier for me to articulate my own pro-choice views, as well as why some phrases used even within pro-choice circles feel problematic.
September 13, 2019
Five stars may seem a lot for a non-fiction book about Abortion Law and history, but this book is designed to educate the reader and enable dialogue on the topic. It’s worth reading no matter how you feel about it.
September 26, 2019
Comprehensive discussion of abortion from medical, ethical, moral, political and philosophical perspectives. The statistics cited were new to me. What a difference terminology makes in a serious discussion and court decisions.
May 17, 2019
So timely. The author has a unique intersection of professional training in law and medicine that made her uniquely well suited to address this topic.
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November 21, 2023Watson is a bioethicist and lawyer, so this book does a lot of work differentiating between or at least observing the distinction between the legal and the ethical or moral. All kinds of arguments and ideas are examined in a structured way that makes the book easy to read and understand. The book was initially published very early in 2018, so Watson frames the book from an "abortion is a constitutionally protected right" standpoint, which is no longer supported, but her arguments are all still meaningful, and possibly the social arguments are even more important and relevant now. Also, the book's 2018 publication shows its age when Watson consistently refers to pregnant people or people who are able to become pregnant as "she," and I wondered if she would have written it the same way had it been published in the past year.
September 16, 2022
This provides a lot of really good discussions points about the ethics (not just legality) of abortion.
If you happen to read it, let’s discuss!
If you happen to read it, let’s discuss!
November 3, 2023
Very good ethical look at abortion. I think we need a follow up on her views now that Roe was overturned last year. Where do we go from here?
October 15, 2025
Excellent
March 22, 2019
What an extraordinary book - even the title and term "ordinary abortion" is thought-provoking. The author wants people with any and all thoughts on abortion to read this and give the topic more thought, with more information and from different angles. It certainly made me reflect on my own thoughts more.
I also ended up reading very slowly and taking time to digest every few pages. If anyone is reading this and flagging a bit, I might recommend skipping to the Epilogue - it is powerful as a standalone essay and terribly compelling.
I also ended up reading very slowly and taking time to digest every few pages. If anyone is reading this and flagging a bit, I might recommend skipping to the Epilogue - it is powerful as a standalone essay and terribly compelling.
March 5, 2018
This is really thoughtful and well argued. A great critical overview of different aspects of the national discussion about and actual experience of abortion.
July 18, 2022
This book proves how difficult and complex of a topic abortion will always be to discuss. Even after completion, there are still so many unanswered questions and conversations to be had. I’m walking away with a better understanding that we can’t and shouldn’t always compare morals and that we as a society must trust women to make their own decisions, regardless of our agreement. (I advocate for a vegetarian/plant-based diet…that doesn’t mean I demand eating meat should be outlawed.) Chapter 9 discussing autonomy really interested me and here are quite a few quotations I bookmarked throughout:
"Who or what is more in need of protection: fetuses or women? For me, the vulnerable thing in need of protection is pluralism (a system that recognizes more than one ultimate principle.) The idea that Americans who vigorously disagree about gender, family, sex, religion, and endless other topics can all flourish in the same country. I’m not asking you to like abortion, I’m asking you to like pluralism. I’m asking you to acknowledge that your feeling, opinion, belief, or conviction about the moral status of embryos and fetuses cannot be proven to the level required to force it on others through force of law."
"Despite the fact poor women are half of abortion patients, these women are less likely to terminate an unintended pregnancy than higher income women. For women living under the poverty line, 38% of unintended pregnancies end in abortion compared with 48% of unintended pregnancies in women with incomes over 200% of the poverty line."
"Let’s transform our political bickering into productive fighting by further unpacking the 'Russian doll' of abortion and openly discussing how recent social changes are affecting people both practically and emotionally. If the underlying claim driving abortion health regulations is that people shouldn’t have abortions at all, and if some abortion conflicts are really or largely about issues like gender, sexuality, and religion, it would be more productive to identify our true disagreements and discuss them directly."
"Conflict is only productive when we’re honest about the real reason we’re fighting. Productive fighting might be painful, but the possibility of progress, new understandings, and shared resolutions makes those conflicts worth having."
"In the United States, you’re also allowed to think an embryo does not have any moral significance, just as your neighbor is free to think it is the moral equivalent of a child. 'Pro-choice' doesn’t mean you don’t have opinions about other people’s choices, or that you can’t think a woman is wrong about moral status. To be 'pro-choice' is to recognize that your neighbor is a moral thinker, too."
"An obligation to respect another’s view of embryos or fetuses can never outweigh a woman’s moral right to have an abortion under the Agent’s Rights Principal - it’s about the desirability of reducing unwanted pregnancies. The transitivity of respect would say we should try to make abortion rare not because it is bad, but because it’s hard."
"Our society still fails to respect the needs of women who want to have children and pro-life feminism that embraces anti-abortion laws fails to respect the needs of women who don’t want to have children, ever, at this time or any more than they already have."
"A feminist ethics of healthcare seeks to foster women’s agency where it has previously been restricted by patriarchal patterns and assumptions and acknowledges that rather than empowering women, the institution of medicine has historically reinforced unequal power of relations."
"When people talk about the ethical 'duty' a woman has to her fetus, where is the ethical duty society owes women to provide the education, empowerment, and access necessary to use contraception? To protect her from violence and sexual assault? Where is the duty society owes pregnant women to provide housing and neighborhoods where the streets are safe enough to use for exercise and where nutritious food is available? To support education, jobs, and childcare so pregnancy never requires the surrender of long cherished dreams?"
"JMS’s (a teenager in Utah who hired someone to assault her in attempts to cause a miscarriage) fetus was vulnerable because JMS was vulnerable. It appears as if she had a difficult life and limited choices long before she became pregnant. So although her case includes pregnancy, it’s about more than that. JMS was a minor in need who does not seem to have gotten significant resources and support from her community or her country until she tried to harm her fetus. Then her fetus got the attention she did not."
"The issue is whether the majority may use the power of the state to enforce these views on the whole society through operation of the criminal law. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not mandate our own moral code."
"Who or what is more in need of protection: fetuses or women? For me, the vulnerable thing in need of protection is pluralism (a system that recognizes more than one ultimate principle.) The idea that Americans who vigorously disagree about gender, family, sex, religion, and endless other topics can all flourish in the same country. I’m not asking you to like abortion, I’m asking you to like pluralism. I’m asking you to acknowledge that your feeling, opinion, belief, or conviction about the moral status of embryos and fetuses cannot be proven to the level required to force it on others through force of law."
"Despite the fact poor women are half of abortion patients, these women are less likely to terminate an unintended pregnancy than higher income women. For women living under the poverty line, 38% of unintended pregnancies end in abortion compared with 48% of unintended pregnancies in women with incomes over 200% of the poverty line."
"Let’s transform our political bickering into productive fighting by further unpacking the 'Russian doll' of abortion and openly discussing how recent social changes are affecting people both practically and emotionally. If the underlying claim driving abortion health regulations is that people shouldn’t have abortions at all, and if some abortion conflicts are really or largely about issues like gender, sexuality, and religion, it would be more productive to identify our true disagreements and discuss them directly."
"Conflict is only productive when we’re honest about the real reason we’re fighting. Productive fighting might be painful, but the possibility of progress, new understandings, and shared resolutions makes those conflicts worth having."
"In the United States, you’re also allowed to think an embryo does not have any moral significance, just as your neighbor is free to think it is the moral equivalent of a child. 'Pro-choice' doesn’t mean you don’t have opinions about other people’s choices, or that you can’t think a woman is wrong about moral status. To be 'pro-choice' is to recognize that your neighbor is a moral thinker, too."
"An obligation to respect another’s view of embryos or fetuses can never outweigh a woman’s moral right to have an abortion under the Agent’s Rights Principal - it’s about the desirability of reducing unwanted pregnancies. The transitivity of respect would say we should try to make abortion rare not because it is bad, but because it’s hard."
"Our society still fails to respect the needs of women who want to have children and pro-life feminism that embraces anti-abortion laws fails to respect the needs of women who don’t want to have children, ever, at this time or any more than they already have."
"A feminist ethics of healthcare seeks to foster women’s agency where it has previously been restricted by patriarchal patterns and assumptions and acknowledges that rather than empowering women, the institution of medicine has historically reinforced unequal power of relations."
"When people talk about the ethical 'duty' a woman has to her fetus, where is the ethical duty society owes women to provide the education, empowerment, and access necessary to use contraception? To protect her from violence and sexual assault? Where is the duty society owes pregnant women to provide housing and neighborhoods where the streets are safe enough to use for exercise and where nutritious food is available? To support education, jobs, and childcare so pregnancy never requires the surrender of long cherished dreams?"
"JMS’s (a teenager in Utah who hired someone to assault her in attempts to cause a miscarriage) fetus was vulnerable because JMS was vulnerable. It appears as if she had a difficult life and limited choices long before she became pregnant. So although her case includes pregnancy, it’s about more than that. JMS was a minor in need who does not seem to have gotten significant resources and support from her community or her country until she tried to harm her fetus. Then her fetus got the attention she did not."
"The issue is whether the majority may use the power of the state to enforce these views on the whole society through operation of the criminal law. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not mandate our own moral code."
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January 22, 2021From Follett: Winner of the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public LanguageAlthough Roe v. Wade identified abortion as a constitutional right in1973, it still bears stigma--a proverbial scarlet A. Millions of Americans have participated in or benefited from an abortion, but few want to reveal that they have done so. Approximately one in five pregnancies in the US ends in abortion.Why is something so common, which has been legal so long, still a source of shame and secrecy? Why is it so regularly debated by politicians, and so seldom divulged from friend to friend? This book explores the personal stigmathat prevents many from sharing their abortion experiences with friends and family in private conversation, and the structural stigma that keeps it that way. In public discussion, both proponents and opponents of abortion's legality tend to focus on extraordinary cases. This tendency keeps the national debate polarized and contentious, and keeps our focus on the cases that occur the least. Professor Katie Watson focuses instead on the cases that happen the most, which shecalls "ordinary abortion." Scarlet A gives the reflective reader a more accurate impression of what the majority of American abortion practice really looks like. It explains how our silence aroundprivate experience has distorted public opinion, and how including both ordinary abortion and abortion ethics could make our public exchanges more fruitful.In Scarlet A, Watson wisely and respectfully navigates one of the most divisive topics in contemporary life. This book explains the law of abortion, challenges the toxic politics that make it a public football and private secret, offers tools for more productive private exchanges, and leads the way to a morerobust public discussion of abortion ethics. Scarlet A combines storytelling and statistics to bring the story of ordinary abortion out of the shadows, painting a rich, rarely seen picture of how patients anddoctors currently think and act, and ultimately inviting readers to tell their own stories and draw their own conclusions.The paperback edition includes a new preface by the author addressing new cultural developments in abortion discourse and new legal threats to reproductive rights, and updated statistics throughout.
February 22, 2018
Katie Watson is a lawyer and bioethicist who wants to expand our conversation about abortion. Although this book is relatively short, she manages to pack a fair number of topics into it--individual stigma, the ethics surrounding abortion, the law, structural stigma, and conversation. Watson is pro choice, but in the ethics sections, she gives due weight to anti abortion points of view (though it's still fairly clear she rejects them).
Watson wants to split beliefs into legal vs. ethical. This is useful, to a point--one may have a personal ethical viewpoint on abortion and yet not wish to make it illegal. However, when it comes to her stated belief in pluralism, it still runs into the roadblock of people who want to make abortion illegal. While we can have a conversation about personal ethics, it's difficult to get around the legality question, and the people she talks about who advance their anti-choice beliefs as being somehow feminist don't really make a case for it.
The section on ethics is an excellent read for everyone on all sides, because she forces you to think about why you believe what you believe. Most people don't have a single ethical position, but balance different concerns, and it was personally interesting for me to do so. I do wish she would have addressed issues surrounding disability, though.
The sections on personal stigma, the abortion narrative, and structural stigma are fairly straightforwardly pro choice arguments, with an awareness of reproductive justice and the importance of social factors in women's ability to access abortion, but they are well written.
Ultimately, while her conclusion about respect for pluralism and a demand for honesty from anti-choice campaigners is logical enough, it falls a little bit flat because there's nothing new to say here, and no way to convince that segment of the population of the need to respect the beliefs of others. It may, however, be compelling to many of those who feel some conflict--that abortion should not be illegal, but that they have some issue with it.
Watson wants to split beliefs into legal vs. ethical. This is useful, to a point--one may have a personal ethical viewpoint on abortion and yet not wish to make it illegal. However, when it comes to her stated belief in pluralism, it still runs into the roadblock of people who want to make abortion illegal. While we can have a conversation about personal ethics, it's difficult to get around the legality question, and the people she talks about who advance their anti-choice beliefs as being somehow feminist don't really make a case for it.
The section on ethics is an excellent read for everyone on all sides, because she forces you to think about why you believe what you believe. Most people don't have a single ethical position, but balance different concerns, and it was personally interesting for me to do so. I do wish she would have addressed issues surrounding disability, though.
The sections on personal stigma, the abortion narrative, and structural stigma are fairly straightforwardly pro choice arguments, with an awareness of reproductive justice and the importance of social factors in women's ability to access abortion, but they are well written.
Ultimately, while her conclusion about respect for pluralism and a demand for honesty from anti-choice campaigners is logical enough, it falls a little bit flat because there's nothing new to say here, and no way to convince that segment of the population of the need to respect the beliefs of others. It may, however, be compelling to many of those who feel some conflict--that abortion should not be illegal, but that they have some issue with it.
July 26, 2019
I read this for a book club and it lead to an interesting discussion. As a bioethicist, the author goes into such excruciating detail on certain terminology that the main points get buried. I will say however, that I now have a clearer understanding of Roe v Wade (viability) and Casey (shall not cause an undue burden) and how it is the language in Casey that created this new rash of anti-abortion laws making accessibility (especially for poor women) difficult. Most of these new state laws using the ambiguity of the words 'undue burden' in the Casey decision making accessibility difficult such as a 24-48 hr waiting period, clinic doctors required to have hospital admitting credentials, and a myriad of other hoops to jump through) are written under the guise of protecting the health and safety of women. I was not that aware of these 'Trap' laws and the details, but it is alarming to what lengths women must go through in some states to get a procedure that by current law (Roe) is legal. It all seems to boil down to control of women and shaming/stigmatizing those who wish to terminate their pregnancy for various reasons. It is by no means an easy decision and it is surprising to me that there are those who can make it their mission to picket clinics performing the procedure when they have had an abortion or benefitted from one (husband or boyfriend). Evidently, they believe their reasons are superior to others and they feel that they are justified in judging other women's reasons for seeking one. The author makes the reader examine words such as labeling oneself or others as pro-choice or pro-life when it is a complex, layered explanation. Example: You may believe it is ethically or morally ok to seek an abortion before viability, but not after. And, there are many other examples to consider. So, read it and be informed so that we can have a more reasonable, educated way of understanding the choice.
April 7, 2023
Wilson, a bioethicist, traverses the abortion minefield with extraordinary care and uncommon sense. She has redefined the way I see abortion. Abortion is a common experience. One in five pregnancies end in abortion. Downstream beneficiaries are numerous (husbands, children, societies) yet no one talks about the subject. They may yell about the subject.
When we do talk about abortion, we don't talk about this “ordinary experience”, we talk about the extraordinary or extreme cases. Anti-abortion advocates focuses on partial birth abortions, abortions that take place after viability. Abortion advocates focus on pregnant 10 year olds and fetal abnormalities. No wonder our conversations are so heated.
Wilson talks law, science, ethics, and theology in a clear -- although sometimes dense -- way. She dissects supreme court opinions. (They are opinions, full of deceptive language. Roe dissenters added “convenience” to the list of reasons for an abortion. Gargh! Conveniense?!) She reminds us of the words we bandy about without thinking about them. The constitutional definition of person, for instance, is a human being. Is an embryo or fetus a person? That's a good question that the constitution doesn't really answer. Only a Supreme Court Justice seems to know.
Wilson e tries to take partisan out of the equation and wonders how we can start having pluralistic discussions.
I love the way she ended the book -- "And here we are. Let's keep talking."
When we do talk about abortion, we don't talk about this “ordinary experience”, we talk about the extraordinary or extreme cases. Anti-abortion advocates focuses on partial birth abortions, abortions that take place after viability. Abortion advocates focus on pregnant 10 year olds and fetal abnormalities. No wonder our conversations are so heated.
Wilson talks law, science, ethics, and theology in a clear -- although sometimes dense -- way. She dissects supreme court opinions. (They are opinions, full of deceptive language. Roe dissenters added “convenience” to the list of reasons for an abortion. Gargh! Conveniense?!) She reminds us of the words we bandy about without thinking about them. The constitutional definition of person, for instance, is a human being. Is an embryo or fetus a person? That's a good question that the constitution doesn't really answer. Only a Supreme Court Justice seems to know.
Wilson e tries to take partisan out of the equation and wonders how we can start having pluralistic discussions.
I love the way she ended the book -- "And here we are. Let's keep talking."
February 8, 2019
From simple anecdotes to brainy ethical arguments, this book has a little something for every type of reader. For what is essentially a pro-abortion bias, the book still does a good job respecting and considering the various arguments against it, before ultimately trying to land in a pluralistic middle ground. Pluralism, while a pro-choice philosophy, tries to honor all the potential positions on the subject (and let's be honest, most of us hold "mixed" positions), while very firmly asserting that abortion is a medical and constitutional right, and the various "trojan horse" attempts to legislatively (and morally) chip away at that right are deceitful, patronizing and completely unhelpful, especially when considering that they actually increase the gestational age of a fetus prior to an abortion.
Will this book change the minds of the religious right, the "pro life feminists" and those privileged enough not to have to worry about unintended or unwanted pregnancy? No. But for the rest of us, it's a good read. The epilogue, especially, helps personalize and de-stigmatize the concept of the "ordinary abortion", of which there are hundreds of thousands in the US every year (and millions worldwide) and which should actually be made easier, not harder, for women to access and openly discuss.
Will this book change the minds of the religious right, the "pro life feminists" and those privileged enough not to have to worry about unintended or unwanted pregnancy? No. But for the rest of us, it's a good read. The epilogue, especially, helps personalize and de-stigmatize the concept of the "ordinary abortion", of which there are hundreds of thousands in the US every year (and millions worldwide) and which should actually be made easier, not harder, for women to access and openly discuss.
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October 2, 2023Exactly as advertised. It’s written by a bio-ethicist, and while it was published pre-Dobbs, it offers a great deal of context for that decision and its aftermath.
I found it to be a good balance of stats and stories and pretty compelling for this kind of a primer.
*Worth noting that the book’s language is largely cisnormative, sometimes as a function of the laws as written, but also more generally.
Some lines I highlighted:
“American abortion is both common and clandestine. These elements combine to create what scholars call “the prevalence paradox.” Many women in the United States have abortions. Yet because abortion is stigmatized, even people who describe themselves as pro-choice…don’t want to be associated with it.”
“The frequency with which abortion providers hear patients say “I’m against abortion but my case is different” leads some providers to joke that the conservative exceptions to abortion bans are “rape, incest, and me.””
“The web of abortion beneficiaries even includes some people who aren’t connected to a woman who’s had one. (Although statistically, in the United States I’m not sure that’s possible.) For example, all the unmarried and married couples who never had an accidental pregnancy, but have been able to enjoy their sex life because they weren’t constantly afraid contraceptive failure would upend their lives, are beneficiaries.”
I found it to be a good balance of stats and stories and pretty compelling for this kind of a primer.
*Worth noting that the book’s language is largely cisnormative, sometimes as a function of the laws as written, but also more generally.
Some lines I highlighted:
“American abortion is both common and clandestine. These elements combine to create what scholars call “the prevalence paradox.” Many women in the United States have abortions. Yet because abortion is stigmatized, even people who describe themselves as pro-choice…don’t want to be associated with it.”
“The frequency with which abortion providers hear patients say “I’m against abortion but my case is different” leads some providers to joke that the conservative exceptions to abortion bans are “rape, incest, and me.””
“The web of abortion beneficiaries even includes some people who aren’t connected to a woman who’s had one. (Although statistically, in the United States I’m not sure that’s possible.) For example, all the unmarried and married couples who never had an accidental pregnancy, but have been able to enjoy their sex life because they weren’t constantly afraid contraceptive failure would upend their lives, are beneficiaries.”
September 20, 2021
Vital reading in light of the TX abortion ban of 2021 (bioethicist Watson is prescient when she writes, “How did Texans who oppose abortion sink so low?” Ha.) that discusses all that the subtitle says. I’m an advocate of reproductive rights, I even had an abortion myself in TX over a decade ago, and I learned things I didn’t know and thought about angles I hadn’t considered. Abortions are ordinary—over 900k take place in the US each year—but that doesn’t mean they’re accessible or without stigma. The structural stigma that continues to exist around a person exercising her constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy is a form of oppression that blatantly impacts those with uteruses. Among numerous stickies I put in this book, this is but one good point Watson makes: “I am asking supporters to support abortion with courage. … In this polarized public debate, silence speaks—a tacit statement that it’s okay to let reproductive rights slip away.” That courage doesn’t mean you have to #ShoutYourAbortion; it can mean “private candid conversations” about abortion and fetal rights. This book gives us a thorough and thoughtful tool to inform ethical thinking and practice and courageous conversations.
December 30, 2022
This is THE BEST BOOK ABOUT ABORTION I'VE EVER READ. The author (a bioethicist) sets out to explore "ordinary abortion"--not the special cases that fall clearly on one side of a black-and-white debate and will validate your existing beliefs, but the cases that constitute the bulk of the millions of abortions that happen every year in America: the abortions in which a pregnant person decides, for whatever reason, that her desire or need to NOT be pregnant outweighs whatever moral weight she has assigned to the life inside of her. These are the stories and the questions that I find most interesting, because they tell us the most about how we really think about abortion and its surrounding social and moral issues. I would highly recommend this to ANYONE who is interested in thinking about abortion in any nuanced way. (Basically if you've ever talked with me about abortion, and/or if you thought my book was interesting, I really think you will LOVE THIS BOOK.) Katie Watson is my new hero.
May 18, 2018
This book is excellent. It could have a better subtitle; this is really all about changing how and why and about what we discuss when it comes to abortion. She lays out her book very clearly and that made a difficult topic approachable. It's a little awkward in that the audience is broad but therefore not totally defined; I think it's probably a bit challenging for the everyday reader, but also it's not an academic book. This should be read by everyone in the US, but if that's not possible, at least by politicians, doctors, and women (who unfortunately are usually left to defend themselves and their bodies). I appreciated the author sharing her own story in the epilogue but maybe that could've been a preface.
July 17, 2020
This book could have been a perfect attempt on the topic of abortion. It provides history, science, language and arguments without forcing an opinion. It is recommendable for newbies as well as pros who want to strengthen their reasoning.
Two things destroyed the 5 star rating for me tho:
A) Watson only refers to „women“ - which excludes other people with the ability to become pregnant who face even more obstacles trying to receive an abortion.
B) the comparison of the murders of abortion providers and lynching of Black people seemed very wrong and unnecessary. Watson only refers to some common grounds and seems to be aware that the comparison is problematic - but I am not sure whether this makes it any better.
Two things destroyed the 5 star rating for me tho:
A) Watson only refers to „women“ - which excludes other people with the ability to become pregnant who face even more obstacles trying to receive an abortion.
B) the comparison of the murders of abortion providers and lynching of Black people seemed very wrong and unnecessary. Watson only refers to some common grounds and seems to be aware that the comparison is problematic - but I am not sure whether this makes it any better.
November 17, 2020
An outstanding, very accessible book that i will be promoting eagerly to friends, in furtherance of the author's mission to improve the understanding and discussion of maybe the most stigmatized subject at the intersection of Americans' personal lives and American political life. I am not the least bit surprised to learn that it was awarded the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. High praise for a high acheivement in such a needed endeavor. Katie Watson does not claim impartiality on the subject, but she writes directly and offers her arguments to the highest standards of good faith.
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September 8, 2022The most interesting part of this book was the joke that some doctors have about their patients that goes “The only exceptions for abortion should be rape, incest, and ME.” Meaning that many people are against abortion until they are faced with a situation where they need an abortion and then they believe that their case is different. Many people assume that *those other people* are abusing abortion and using it irresponsibly, but when they themselves are faced with the need for abortion they believe they are the responsible exception. FASCINATING.
August 14, 2025
Welp, fascinating to read a book written by someone decidedly outside the abortion advocacy/“pro abortion” space(s) - provides a totally different framing of the issue that I appreciated. Ex: focus on distinction between legal and ethical/moral; emphasis on not persuading someone toward a perspective but instead creating an argument for actions that align with a pluralist worldview (irrespective of one’s own personal ethical/moral leanings). Also, devastating to read this post-Dobbs; would love a 2022 on update.
August 14, 2018
Argues that we should shift the abortion debate away from the rare cases (incest, health) towards the ordinary abortions that 100s of thousands of women have every year. The chapter discussing the political framing of abortions and suggesting that we frame abortion as an issue of justice really resonated with me. Also, the idea of systemic stigma that prevents providers that want to provide abortion from doing so was something I hadn't thought about.
February 5, 2019
An amazing book; thoughtful, balanced, data-driven, measured, objective, not preachy. Regardless of whether your views are pro-choice, pro-life, pro-choice/anti-abortion, or any where in between this book clearly explains the law, ethics, and morality of ordinary abortion. The thoroughly researched book provides recommendations for more productive discussions about a constitutional right. A right that is best viewed as one in which we agree to disagree.
March 5, 2019
I think it is an important work. Watson set out to write a clear account of abortion in this country since Roe v Wade became the law of the land. But she presented so many arguments from ethics, to law to philosophy to women's rights that my head was spinning. It was not an easy read in style and I did not finish the book. It is an important topic for woman's equality, I just wish it was easier to read.
March 7, 2024
This book is SO GOOD. A must read for anyone who wants to better understand their own views, biases and thoughts on abortion. Although the author has a clear opinion she makes a compelling argument that no one is really benefiting from our country's partisan approach to this topic and tolerant dialogue is greatly needed. I loved her literary comparisons between The Scarlet Letter and today's scarlet "A".
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