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Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'
You're the Only One I've Told: The Stories Behind Abortion by Meera Shah
5 reviews
cassidy_rain's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
“My hope is that this collection of stories about abortion will enable others to share theirs. Opening up about a personal experience, let alone a controversial one, is scary. But with risk comes reward. Stories have power.”
You’re The Only One I’ve Told is a powerful and informative collection of stories of women/child-bearing persons who have had abortions. The author is a reproductive health doctor who performs abortions and aims to end the stigma against the medical procedure.
I really appreciate how this is informative, yet takes a compassionate and empathic approach to the subject matter. I’m someone who already vehemently believes in a person’s right to choose. I work in healthcare and have studied health education and women’s health, and this even left with me some things to think about. I really enjoyed the storytelling with information and facts sprinkled throughout each chapter. You can learn a lot in an easy to digest manner. There are so many scenarios when someone may need or want an abortion and this does a great job of diving into that nuance.
“There is no such thing as a good abortion or a bad abortion or someone who is worthy of an abortion or someone who is not.”
You’re The Only One I’ve Told is a powerful and informative collection of stories of women/child-bearing persons who have had abortions. The author is a reproductive health doctor who performs abortions and aims to end the stigma against the medical procedure.
I really appreciate how this is informative, yet takes a compassionate and empathic approach to the subject matter. I’m someone who already vehemently believes in a person’s right to choose. I work in healthcare and have studied health education and women’s health, and this even left with me some things to think about. I really enjoyed the storytelling with information and facts sprinkled throughout each chapter. You can learn a lot in an easy to digest manner. There are so many scenarios when someone may need or want an abortion and this does a great job of diving into that nuance.
“There is no such thing as a good abortion or a bad abortion or someone who is worthy of an abortion or someone who is not.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Infertility, Rape, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Pregnancy
kamrynkoble's review
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Women’s reproductive rights and care has always been something extremely important to me. I came to this book with the lens of a woman raised in a highly conservative, Christian environment who is pro-choice despite never needing abortion care myself. Because of my background, I do not think this book would be very effective to “sway” any conservative Christians.
It often seeks to identify abortion as something commonplace and completely devoid of shame. It included the stories of several women who had to have abortion for medical reasons, even though they wanted the pregnancy. In these situations, the grief and decision-making is difficult. But in the author, a physician’s, own narration, it comes across as “not that big of a deal.” There really isn’t any education on avoiding abortion in the first place as it’s apparent that the author sees no issue with women having as many abortions as they want, for whatever reason. I could see this almost irreverent tone as being off putting to those who are on the fence in any way, shape, or form.
The other factor is high attention to gender. This book focuses on inclusive language (pregnant person instead of pregnant woman, people with uteruses, etc), provides pronouns for every person mentioned at the beginning of their chapters, and often offers caveats that include nonbinary people and trans men. While I know these caveats are important, it can detract from this seeming like a woman’s issue, and turns the conversation to broader topics of gender and sexuality. For that reason I would also be extremely hesitant to recommend this book to a conservative Christian.
The author is obviously a physician, and I think this book could’ve benefitted from a ghost writer who could help organize the thoughts here in a more cohesive, easy-to-read way. It was often repetitive and ricocheted between people’s personal stories and then paragraphs of laws and court cases.
What was strong? I learned SO much. I feel like I have a much more comprehensive look at reproductive healthcare in the US. The most recent developments have terrified me, and I hope the author expands upon them in a second edition at some point.
I appreciated the wide breadth of the different stories offered here. It was obvious that all the interviewees had great rapport with the author.
As a decidedly pro-choice person, I found this educational, fascinating, and clarifying. With a different author tone, I could see these stories being helpful for those who’ve never been in these people’s shoes, and struggle to imagine what it would be like. I’ll gladly recommend this to my pro-choice friends, but if you’re looking for something to sway others, I don’t think this is the pick.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion and Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma
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.
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.
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
sydneybedell's review against another edition
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Abortion