A Woman’s Life Is a Human
Life is a brave, timely, and potent corrective to the received
wisdom of Roe v. Wade and to reproductive rights in New York and the
nation, pulling together the history of two key victories pre- and post-Roe
v. Wade that were pioneered by a diverse group of women activists.It rectifies the
longstanding misconception that the Supreme Court gave us abortion access – a
victory that was won by activists and set off a national wave of others. The
Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade was greatly influenced by these
already won victories, as well as the impact it would have on things like
professional organizations run by doctors and lawyers.It is also an important
reckoning with what the feminism of the time left out, with vital lessons for
today’s activists on how life experience can limit or expand the futures we
envision. When middle-class white feminists failed to see how the sterilization
of poor women and women of color was part of the reproductive freedom agenda,
they not only let their movement down but also, Kornbluh argues, missed a
chance to escape the secular vs. religious binary that has set the terms of the
debate ever since.It’s also chock full of
great stories – from the abortion referral service started by a group
progressive Christian and Jewish clergy, to the fraught moment in the state
Assembly when a decisive vote was changed despite electoral suicide, to the
occupation of the Bronx’s substandard Lincoln Hospital by the Young Lords,
abetted by a group of activist doctors – this is lively, on the ground history
with truth and real stakes in ordinary lives.Includes exclusive
interviews with the activists who led the reproductive justice movement as well
as its leading historians and never-seen archival sources.The first in-depth study of a winning campaign against a state's abortion law, and the first book to take the sterilization abuse fight side by side.Felicia is an established
writer. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles
Times, The Nation, In These Times, and the Women’s Review
of Books. A Woman’s Life Is a Human
Life will feature photos, both private and public, of the people
leading the 1970s reproductive rights movements, such as Meredith Tax, Karen
Stamm, Dr. Helen Rodríguez-Trías, Betty Friedan, Florynce Kennedy,
Ti-Grace Atkinson, Sarah Schulman, and more.We expect jacket blurbs
from a sensational collection of authors, journalists, and activists. Pulitzer Prize winning author David Garrow, prize-winning author Leslie J.
Reagan, Sarah Schulman, Alix Kates Shulman, and historian Linda Gordon have
already weighed in.Strong potential academic
outreach – the book is an ideal primer for readers who are not yet familiar
this history and lends itself to course adoption.