A Side Step

Usually I leave my politics way out of this blog. This is my neutral territory.. knitting. And crafting. I am very politically active, and it takes up a lot of my time. It stresses me out, gets me angry, keeps me busy. At times it can be a complete emotional rollercoaster and I have tended to keep this blog as my political free-zone so I could have a calm, peaceful haven. It's knitting. There's nothing like just closing the whole world behind you after a day of extremely emotionally charged activism and taking up the needles and knitting.

But I am going to pause that neutrality for a second.

The other day I was at Half Price Books and I was in the Women's Studies section, and I happened across a book called Back Rooms: Voices from the Illegal Abortion Era. It was rather inexpensive, and they were having a sale, so I picked it up.

I have a rather extensive Women's Studies library, both here at the apartment and at my parents. I am always on the lookout for new viewpoints, ideas, thoughts. Pro-life, pro-choice, it doesn't matter. If you have an idea, bring it on. But after a while the same thoughts and ideas keep coming up. It's the same old stuff.

This book is like nothing I have encountered before. It is chilling. If you are pro-choice, you need to read it. If you a pro-life, you need to read it. If you are undecided, you need to read it. This book is a set of oral histories from women who either obtained abortions before it was legal or had a child long before they were ready, either because the abortion didn't work or they couldn't obtain one. The kitchen table and coat hangers you always hear about? These women *lived* it. Their stories need to be heard. I have never run across this book before, but this is something that needs to be out there more.

This book is haunting, chilling, educational, and most of all, oral history. From women. We can't forget the women who came before us, plowed through to make paths for us, and tread in waters that most of us have not. Hopefully they won't be silenced and forgotten.