Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Womens Words

This collection of women's tales of abortion will certainly be useful as a textbook, but a lack of in-depth analysis makes it a bit of a drag as a read. Portions of the various interviews are arranged under headings such as ""Moving Through Moodiness"" and ""Making Peace with Our Bodies"" that constitute the bulk of the book's little analysis. Stripped of most personal information, and beginning almost inevitably with the woman's age, name and ethnic background (i.e., ""Donna, who is white and 42,"" ""Olivia, a 46-year-old African American""), the interviews tend to run together. Kushner uses a collective narrative voice, and often states the obvious, such as ""If we have had a birth control failure, we may fear sex after an abortion."" Much of this material is presented as if it were a radical departure from accepted wisdom, for example the segment about Fritzi, a white 21-year-old who, Kushner claims, forces us to re-examine stereotypes about women who may need abortions. ""Can that group include farm-fresh women like Fritzi?"" Some of the most interesting considerations here come from women who feel political pressure from both pro-choice and anti-choice factions. ""I felt like if in any way I was unhappy, then I was just fueling the antichoice fires,"" one 25-year-old recalls while explaining why she focused her grief in other ways. In another segment, a 22-year-old recounts how quickly an accidental pregnancy during her third year of college altered her born-again Christian, pro-life views, and that she never confided in her fellow Christians about the procedure. (May)