A review by veefuller
Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion, by Karen E. Bender

5.0

This was my first read during women's history month, and with the full awareness that we are increasingly edging our way towards a reality in which choice no longer exists.

I absolutely think everyone -- and I do mean everyone -- should read this book. Make it mandatory reading in sex education classes as a minimum.

It's no secret that I am staunchly and firmly pro-choice. And my life has largely been possible because I've been free to make decisions regarding my own desire to reproduce. Had I not had some options open to me, it's very much unlikely that I'd have gone to graduate school or landed in Moscow or met The Cuban. What an astounding reality and one I'm so grateful I don't have to contemplate for long.

I'll never question any choices any other woman makes regarding what she chooses to do with her own body. Those are decisions she must live with as I live with my own decisions. And I will never stop fighting for the young women who follow me so that they will have all of the choices they need available to them.

Abortion should be legal, and safe and rare. And the only way that becomes a reality is if we stop trying to regulate women's bodies. And my favourite bumper sticker is still this:

'How can you trust me with a baby if you can't even trust me with a choice?'

My body, my choice. Full stop.

#womenhistorymonth