Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

You're the Only One I've Told: The Stories Behind Abortion by Meera Shah

4 reviews

madisino's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

4.5

In the wake of Dobb, some of the sentiments in this book dated very quickly. Still, many chapters take place even before Roe, and often I hadn’t considered. This was such an accessible and impactful read. Definitely one I’d recommend anyone who wants to learn more about reproductive justice. I think books like this and Evicted that  humanize hot-button issues can be most impactful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Incest, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

stirlingluci's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

no matter your views, this is a must read. it has an incredible amount of information, stories, and compassion

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Pregnancy

blissofalife's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to understand the nuances of abortion and see how it affects everybody.

Very informative, very well written. I didn’t love switching narrators on the audiobook, one was clear and loud the other was soft and fuzzy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

yourbookishbff's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

You're the Only One I've Told, by Dr. Meera Shah, is an incredibly compelling collection of abortion stories. Dr. Shah is a physician who provides abortions and reproductive healthcare to patients in New York, but her compilation of stories spans experiences across (and outside of) the US. She highlights a diverse cross-section of people, effectively evidencing the thousands of intricacies in any reproductive healthcare decision. Each story is told in close collaboration with the story's owner, and each story is complemented by contextual details about the specific state/country the patient lived in (and thus, the various legal challenges they faced). 

In bringing these stories together in a single collection, Dr. Shah examines the personal, relational, familial, religious, cultural, medical and legal layers in every decision, showing us just how complex pregnancy decisions can be. We hear the stories of single people, married parents with children, nonbinary and trans people, people of color, young and not-so-young people, people seeking care hundreds - and sometimes thousands - of miles from home, people who have had multiple abortions, people who have encountered planned pregnancies with complex diagnoses and people who have encountered unplanned pregnancies and so many more. No two stories are alike, making the black-and-white legal barriers they each face all the more absurd. It is particularly eye-opening to see just how inaccessible reproductive healthcare is to the people highlighted in these stories, and this was written and published BEFORE the reversal of Roe vs. Wade. Abortion access has been steadily eroding for decades, and when you see intimately in these accounts the real people that these mostly state-led restrictions have impacted, it's heart wrenching.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Racism

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia