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A review by olicooper
Her Body, Our Laws: On the Front Lines of the Abortion War, from El Salvador to Oklahoma by Michelle Oberman
4.0
This book does a great job at shining a bright light on who is most impacted by restrictive abortion laws: the poor, the rural, and women of color.
Oberman researched in El Salvador - a country with an abortion ban--without exception; but she also spends time in Oklahoma after they passed some of our country's most "pro-life" states as well as looking at U.S. cases against women for abortion related crimes.
The facts are maddening and the impact these laws have when enforced are very specifically targeted towards the most marginalized women.
She talks to both pro-life and pro-choice activists and lawmakers. With each side, she remains objective and open to listening and understanding. She closes her book urging for deep conversation and a meaningful discourse, which I fully support. it may not change anyone's opinion, but it can lead to a better understanding of one another. After all, none of us are two-dimensional cartoon villains.
I will say that the book tended to focus on cases where women were in the most desperate of situations, which I feel does a disservice to all women's right to privacy and bodily integrity. I suppose this is to highlight how restrictive laws particularly impact these groups. And for the most part, from what we see from the number of illegal abortions and the cases that are actually prosecuted for it, it seems like women of privilege mostly go without consequence. But our right to privacy and bodily autonomy are something most sacred, and I fear making arguments that solely center around exceptions such as rape or incest can have dangerous implications. To be fair-- Oberman is not just arguing for these exceptions, and she does bring up the right to privacy being key to Roe v. Wade. It's just when I hear defenses for abortion that only consider tragic and desperate scenarios as to why a women would chose to have an abortion, it undermines the decision of women who were not in those situations.
Oberman researched in El Salvador - a country with an abortion ban--without exception; but she also spends time in Oklahoma after they passed some of our country's most "pro-life" states as well as looking at U.S. cases against women for abortion related crimes.
The facts are maddening and the impact these laws have when enforced are very specifically targeted towards the most marginalized women.
She talks to both pro-life and pro-choice activists and lawmakers. With each side, she remains objective and open to listening and understanding. She closes her book urging for deep conversation and a meaningful discourse, which I fully support. it may not change anyone's opinion, but it can lead to a better understanding of one another. After all, none of us are two-dimensional cartoon villains.
I will say that the book tended to focus on cases where women were in the most desperate of situations, which I feel does a disservice to all women's right to privacy and bodily integrity. I suppose this is to highlight how restrictive laws particularly impact these groups. And for the most part, from what we see from the number of illegal abortions and the cases that are actually prosecuted for it, it seems like women of privilege mostly go without consequence. But our right to privacy and bodily autonomy are something most sacred, and I fear making arguments that solely center around exceptions such as rape or incest can have dangerous implications. To be fair-- Oberman is not just arguing for these exceptions, and she does bring up the right to privacy being key to Roe v. Wade. It's just when I hear defenses for abortion that only consider tragic and desperate scenarios as to why a women would chose to have an abortion, it undermines the decision of women who were not in those situations.