Controlling Women ... and reproductive freedom

CONTROLLING WOMEN by Kathryn Kolbert and Julie F. Kay is subtitled “What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.” It will certainly be of interest to our students, several of whom have researched and written about court cases like Roe v. Wade, about the Turnaway Study, and about policy reviews from places like Guttmacher Institute. The authors are both lawyers: Kolbert argued Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the Supreme Court and has long been a champion of women’s rights; Kay, too, has argued for women and for religious rights, both in the US and abroad. In crafting this book, they have relied on their “own recollections and contemporaneous accounts and analysis by others;” the notes section comprises roughly twenty percent of the text. 

Some of the statistics they cite may be quite surprising – did you know that nearly 1 in 4 women has an abortion by age 45? Yet partisan controversy (see editorial cartoon created by The Washington Post’s Ann Telnaes, for example) and drama (e.g., incarceration of a mother who ordered abortion medication for her daughter; new laws further restricting access and allowing for more litigation) are rampant. Kolbert and Kay discuss much of the history as well as the new composition of the Supreme Court before outlining their thoughts on “new tactics, new triumphs” involving a range of activities including state initiatives and even new locations (like international waters) for reproductive health clinics. CONTROLLING WOMEN received starred reviews from Kirkus and Library Journal.