My Body My Choice: The Fight for Abortion Rights

By Robin Stevenson

★“Required reading for teens of every gender.”—Booklist, starred review

Abortion is one of the most common of all medical procedures. But it is still stigmatized,  and all too often people do not feel they can talk about their experiences.

Making abortion illegal or hard to access doesn't make it any less common; it just makes it dangerous. Around the world, tens of thousands of women die from unsafe abortions every year.

People who support abortion rights have been fighting hard to create a world in which the right to access safe and legal abortion services is guaranteed. The opposition to this has been intense and sometimes violent, and victories have been hard won.

The long fight for abortion rights is being picked up by a new generation of courageous, creative and passionate activists. This book is about the history, and the future, of that fight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: May 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781459817142

Robin Stevenson

Robin Stevenson is an award-winning author of books for kids and teens. Her writing has been translated into several languages and published in more than ten countries. She lives with her family on the west coast of Canada.

Reviews for My Body My Choice

[sep780 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This has good information about abortion and the fight for the right to choose whether or not to be pregnant for ourselves. I do want to make it clear that this is written in a way that targets teenagers, but even adults can learn from it. As a result, I think this would be a good book for schools to use to teach the history of the fight, and the facts surrounding the history of that fight.

[jane3phillips-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Informative young adult non-fiction on the fight for abortion rights all over the world, but mainly focusing on Canada and the US. This book gives a good history on abortion rights to help the reader understand the current political and social climate in regards to the issue.

[g33kgrrl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is amazing and needs to have a far reach. It presents a full picture of past and present, abortion history and current reproductive justice battles, the main focus of which is on the USA and Canada but includes information from every other continent (I mean, except Antarctica). It is evidence-based and clearly written and a marvelous resource. It's trans-inclusive and has a specific focus on the damage anti-abortion laws cause to marginalized populations. If I could I would buy a million copies of this book and hand them out to everyone.I received a free ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

[bucketofrhymes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received a free copy of My Body My Choice through LibraryThing from the publisher as part of the Early Reviewers program — thank you!There’s a whole lot that I love about this book. It’s a well-researched, sensitively discussed book about an important (and timely) topic. The content is clear to understand without being condescending. And the illustrations are awesome, too! This is the kind of book I wish I could go back in time and give to 12 year old me.

[lisamorr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of the Early Reviewer's program, and it turned out to be more timely that I would've hoped. This book aimed at teens explains what an abortion is, who has abortions, the history of abortion, the fight for legal abortion in the US and Canada, how abortion rights are being attacked in North America and across the world, and what can be done to fight for reproductive justice. It is well-illustrated with photos and comics and lots of insets. Although marketed for a YA audience, as an adult I learned a lot. Well done and I hope it helps to educate young women as well as mobilize them.

[thriftyserendipity · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was an easy read finished within a few hours with interruptions. Filled with pictures, comics, maps, etc. I think that this book does an awesome job at telling the history of reproductive rights and what people have been doing to fight for these rights. This book would definitely appeal to the younger generation and does a good job explaining the difficulties of cultures all around the world. It promotes young activists and It's easy to see that anyone looking for information on abortion will not take only get that but also the comfort of knowing they're not alone and actually have resources to go to. Well done.

[sallylou61 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This review is based on the Advance Reading Copy provided through the publisher to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. This edition includes numerous black and white illustrations; the “final book will be in color” (upper right corner of front cover).Ms. Stevenson wrote this book for young people, particularly teenagers. It discusses abortion rights both from a historical and current prospective, and shows that these rights are a world-wide problem. Ms. Stevenson emphasizes the importance of access to abortion; girls and women who have no access to safe abortions do not have freedom of choice. These roadblocks to access include geography -- no abortion providers in the area in which a person lives -- financial constraints, and for teenagers needing to get parental permission. The lack of access disproportionately affects the poor. Ms. Stevenson also stresses the importance of complete reproductive education; teaching abstinence-only education is not enough and tends to lead to increased teenage pregnancies.Some strengths of this book include: (1) the use of numerous illustrations including some in comic strip style (graphic) format; (2) the telling of personal stories by people involved in the abortion struggle; (3) the inclusion of stories about the involvement of young people worldwide, and (4) highlighting terms which might be unfamiliar to teenagers unfamiliar with reproductive education and giving the definitions in the glossary at the end of the book.Weaknesses include: fragmentation of information by trying to cover the worldwide situation with very brief discussions of what is happening in selected countries, and not enough telling of personal stories, especially of young people who have had abortions. The sections on the situation in the United States and Canada are much more complete than for the other countries.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Robin Stevenson has written a book outlining the fight for abortion rights around the world. The book is aimed at young people and provides both a historical perspective as well as a social one. It deals especially well with issues around shame and stigma -- this is a real strength. A young person who has had an abortion can find comfort in knowing she isn't alone by reading this book. Another strength is the myth-busting and educational value in the book on issues related to health and sex education. I also appreciated the discussion of the social context which is often not supportive of single mothers, or even mothers generally. The author puts the abortion issue in a broad context of society's attitudes towards women, racial minorities and child-friendly public policy. Very well done -- this is a book that will start the kind of conversations we need to have.