Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement

By Sarah Erdreich

Strong support among women was key to Obama’s reelection. At the start of his second term, it is time for Barack Obama, forty years after Roe v. Wade, to finally help lead us to demystify abortion. One-third of all American women will have an abortion by the time they are 45, and most of those women are already mothers. Yet, the topic remains taboo. In this provocative book on the heels of the Planned Parenthood controversy, Sarah Erdreich presents the antidote to the usual abortion debates.

Inextricably connected to issues of autonomy, privacy, and sexuality, the abortion debate remains home base for the culture wars in America. Yet, there is more common ground than meets the eye in favor of choice. Generation Roe delves into phenomena such as "abortion-recovery counseling," "crisis pregnancy centers," and the infamous anti-choice "black children are an endangered species" billboards. It tells the stories of those who risk their lives to pursue careers in this stigmatized field. And it outlines the outrageous legislative battles that are being waged against abortion rights all over the country. With an inspiring spirit and a forward-looking approach, Erdreich holds abortion up, unabashedly, as a moral and fundamental human right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781609804596

Reviews for Generation Roe

[sallylou61 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting book, especially when Erdreich tells the stories of women (and occasionally men) involved in the Pro-Choice Movement, but not nearly as memorable as The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler, to which she refers several times. Erdreich covers various aspects of the Pro-Choice Movement, and in one chapter compares it to the LGBT movement, which has been more successful recently. In the final chapter, she points out that there are disagreements among Pro-Choice activists about what to stress (such as the legislative/court emphasis versus working to make abortions more accessible to poor women who need to travel great distances and don't have the necessary monetary or transportation resources) and what forms activism should take. Moreover, some of the older established organizations are rather rigid and not adaptable to new ways of doing things. Erdreich also examines the Pro-Life Movement (which she believes should be called the Anti-Choice Movement), and points out how it is successful even though it distributes false "information", etc.Includes brief annotated lists of organizations, books, films, and blogs and also endnotes, but does not include an index.