by Adele
The authors, Dr. Curtis Boyd and Dr. Glenna Halvorson-Boyd, are a married couple working over 50 years together in abortion care. Boyd, an abortion doctor, pioneered medical techniques for abortions from early pregnancy to late term. Halvorson-Boyd, a nurse and counselor, established methods of compassionate care for patients and clinic staff. They took turns writing chapters where they describe experiences in their personal and professional lives that instilled passionate concern for their patients, medically and psychologically.
Growing up, the authors witnessed women like Halvorson-Boyd’s mother, who enjoyed motherhood but became severely depressed when restricted to that role. Women forced into teenage or single motherhood lost control of their lives. Illegal abortions could be incomplete and life-threatening.
DOING THE JOB DESPITE DANGER
These experiences encouraged the authors to “choose to” provide care in spite of constant danger. Boyd faced threats to his career as a doctor secretly providing abortions before abortion became legal. Patients’ male partners sometimes threatened to blackmail or report him to the police. After legalization, the authors received constant threats from terrorists, who even firebombed their clinic twice. One arsonist was a boyfriend of a patient.
The authors helped establish the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which kept records of the increasing vandalism of clinics and murders of providers. Like the escalating anti-abortion rhetoric in today’s society, this violence was done in the name of religion, especially Christianity. In reality, the religious Right promoted misogynist patriarchal control of women, stigmatizing their sexuality for political power.
The authors worked closely with the Clergy Consultation Service (CCS) before and soon after legalization. As counselors, Protestant and Jewish clergy learned the details of women’s lives. They directed women to safe doctors, assuring them abortion was a moral option. Many mainstream Christian denominations, even conservative ones, officially supported legalizing abortion at that time. In 2007, after the authors’ clinic was bombed, “friends from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice came to bless us and feed us.”
LEGALIZATION BENEFITS WOMEN
The authors explain many ways legalization makes abortion safer and benefits women’s healthcare. In 1969, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) formed the Abortion Surveillance System to study legal abortion, the characteristics of women seeking abortion, and complication rates. Providers could compare experiences and report complications. Boyd said, “I welcomed the scientific community that came with government oversight. I was no longer alone.”
In 2000, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine article “Abortion Surveillance at CDC: Creating Public Light out of Public Heat” stated: “When medical historians of the future look back on this century, the increasing availability of safe, legal abortion will stand out as a public health triumph.”
The NAF allowed providers to “share their experiences, problems, insights and techniques. Now women could go to any clinic that was a NAF member and know that it met their standards of safety.”
The authors relate numerous lessons from patients, including reasons for seeking an abortion. Halvorson-Boyd combined traditions of counseling from the CCS with feminist underground abortion networks. This helped patients feel empowered to make their own decisions. The authors describe meetings of abortion providers teaching each other medical and therapy skills. The book contains patients’ entries from a journal in the clinic recovery room. Patients read others’ entries, sometimes writing responses.
This book shows the importance of knowing history, especially in today’s “post-fact world.” It concludes when Roe was overturned, returning areas in the U.S. to a situation where abortion care was made illegal. The authors acknowledge the harm this will cause, but explain things are different this time. The religious Right has “kicked a hornet’s nest,” inspiring people to fight back. Legalization allowed people to speak openly about the realities of abortion care. It allowed them to form infrastructure, from the NAF to overlapping networks among feminists, providers, and religious organizations. Patients and providers are less likely to feel alone, instead viewing themselves as part of a greater cause. The authors provide hope that we can defeat authoritarianism and create a compassionate, connected society.