E-book
This common secret my journey as an abortion doctor
Record details
- ISBN: 9781586486273 (electronic bk.)
- ISBN: 1586486276 (electronic bk.)
- ISBN: 9781586484804
- ISBN: 158648480X
- ISBN: 9781586486471
- ISBN: 1586486470
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Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote
1 online resource (vii, 268 p.) - Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Public Affairs, c2007.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | CatBulkString:jan.03.13 Multi-User. CatMonthString:jan.13 |
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Flower Grandma's secret -- A seed planted -- My choice -- All of us can do more -- Disguises -- Beseiged -- Rocks and hard places -- Safe houses -- A day of clinic -- Legal obstacle course -- Hypocrisy -- A neglected patient -- Curls of smoke -- Full circle. |
| Source of Description Note: | Description based on print version record. |
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| Genre: | Electronic books. |
Other Formats and Editions
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2007 December #1
Whether one is pro-choice or not, there can be little doubt that the women Wicklund presents, who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy, face a life-changing situation. Nor can there be little doubt of their need for someone, anyone, to offer compassion and wise counsel. For Wicklund when she was in the same situation more than 30 years ago, there was no one. She underwent a safe, legal abortion that was, however, totally lacking in human kindness, and that was when she determined to devote herself to women's reproductive health as a midwife and, later, a physician. Once out of med school, she practiced first at one Midwest abortion clinic, then another, and eventually traveled between three states and three different clinics, all the while dodging aggressive anti-choice activists who threatened her and her family members' lives. As Wicklund endeavors to demonstrate, though her story is harrowing, the stories of the women she serves are becoming even more so as the number of obstacles blocking their reproductive choices increases, thanks to ever more conservative legislators. Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2007 October #2
A longtime abortion provider relates her personal history, describes the opposition's ferocity, chronicles the corrosive effects of her profession on her family life and portrays herself as a White Knight in a Dark World.In 1980, Wicklund was a 26-year-old single mother on welfare. When a mentor advised her to become a doctor, she debated and then tried it, discovered she was a top student and zipped through college and medical school. Settling on a career in women's health, she devoted herself to traveling around the Upper Midwest performing legal abortions at various clinics. Her peripatetic professional activities shot down two marriages and introduced into her life a level of stress that is difficult to fathom: screaming protestors, threats of violence, frightening phone calls. At times she resorted to disguises to get by picketers; she packed guns while she performed operations. Her professional life became just about her entire life. Her most satisfying experience was the Mountain Country Women's Clinic she established in Bozeman, Mont., but she was forced to close it after five years in 1998 to help her sick and aging parents while working part-time at a corporate-owned facility in St. Paul, Minn. She returned to full-time work in Montana after her mother's death. All this is either admirable or reprehensible, depending on your position on abortion, but Wicklund and co-author Kesselheim have no doubts: She is eligible for sainthood right now. All the dialogueâand there is quite a bitâportrays her speaking in reasonable, well-structured paragraphs while her enemies bray in ignorant ugliness. She understands every case before her; knows when to touch, when to cry; converts a few naysayers; confronts the angry with calm courage; never makes a mistake in surgery. Two postscriptsâone by her daughter, another by Kesselheimâprovide further, embarrassing testimonials.In a genre known for self-celebration, this is Self-Celebration.Agent: Kristine Dahl/ICM Copyright Kirkus 2007 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - PW Annex Reviews : Publishers Weekly Annex Reviews
In rational, compassionate and honest language, Wicklund chronicles more than 20 years as a medical doctor and women's health provider with a "fundamental commitment to patients and to the cause of keeping reproductive rights safe and legal," a commitment that would put herself and her family under direct threat from anti-abortion extremists, and cause her to adopt disguises and even a personal bodyguard in order to continue her work. Wicklund's story is gripping and poignant, not only for its numerous personal accounts-including Wicklund's own experience terminating her pregnancy-but in her consideration of current and proposed reproductive rights legislation; in addition to eye-opening statistics ("In 2006, 87% of counties in the United States had no abortion provider"), Wicklund provides a fine resource guide for further reading. Though a digression concerning her parents' unrelated health issues derails the narrative, and she fails to discuss abortion law in other developed countries, this topical memoir will make a compelling read for anyone interested in women's health and reproductive rights in America. (Jan.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
