Creating Choice

In this oral history, David P. Cline gathers the personal stories of people who sought abortions and birth control and the health care professionals, clergy members, and feminist activists who helped them. Focusing on one Massachusetts community, Cline uses these stories as a lens through which to reexamine the contentious history of reproductive rights in America over the last thirty years. Cline demonstrates that fighting for abortion rights was not just the province of feminist radicals, but was embraced by the mainstream of small town communities, including doctors and clergy members. This fascinating history is a much-needed contribution to recent scholarship on the reproductive rights movement as well as an important new work of community oral history. The text will be essential reading to students of reproductive rights, women's studies, religious history, and to people on both sides of the abortion issue.