Reddit reviews How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex

Think of it this way: you are talking about 2 separate things - your own personal choices and other people’s. You are very clear about what you would choose for yourself, and that’s great. The question you’re left with is whether or not to impose those beliefs on others.

Abortion was illegal until Roe v Wade, but that in no way means that it didn’t exist. Desperate women do desperate things. There is a reason that you see coat hangers used in pro-choice messaging - because women were literally sticking coat hangers into themselves in a desperate attempt to end their pregnancies. That is not acceptable, and when someone is that level of desperate, enacting laws to make them even more desperate is not merciful or kind.

All that the pro choice movement is asking is that abortion remain legal and safe, with the goal of making it RARE. They wish to do this through contraceptive access, sex education, and social safety nets in order to hopefully avoid a situation where a woman feels that level of desperation. Lawmakers in the US have shown more interest in setting up roadblocks to receiving abortion care than helping any of the other things. In the process they do things like shut down funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides vital healthcare to underprivileged populations. That means no access to life-saving things like mammograms, Pap smears, and prenatal care for vulnerable populations. There is absolutely nothing “pro life” about that.

Many years ago I read the book How the Pro Choice Movement Saved America by Cristina Page - the Amazon page is here and it covers all of these issues and more. It was written during the 2nd Bush Administration, so it may need some updating, but the issues and the history she discusses haven’t really changed. She uses a lot of facts and numbers to back up her arguments but it’s still really readable and I think it would help answer the questions you’re grappling with here. You can get an ebook version of it and read it to your phone if you’re worried about your family finding it.

Good luck.

Some that I've really enjoyed:

The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World by Michelle Goldberg

How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex by Cristina Page

Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice by Dr. Willie Parker

Lovejoy: A Year in the Life of an Abortion Clinic by Peter Korn

This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor by Susan Wicklund

Willing and Unable: Doctors' Constraints in Abortion Care by Lori R. Freedman

Who Decides: The Abortion Rights of Teens by J. Shoshanna Ehrlich

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan

The Abortionist by Rickie Solinger

I'm sure there's a lot more I'm forgetting, as well as ones I have yet to read but are on my list, but all of these were ones I found important/fascinating, and easy-to-read (no dense academic texts).