The decision to end a pregnancy is difficult for many women. Religion or spirituality should provide a place compassion and guidance to anyone facing this choice. Katey Zeh (a Baptist minister) brings compassion and understanding to the pro-choice movement with her 2022 work A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement. Zeh guides the reader through numerous first hand accounts of women: coming to the decision to have an abortion; their experience having and recovering from their abortion; and how their lives were affected by their choice.
I greatly admire how Zeh approached her misunderstanding and personal prejudices with in the prochoice movement. She discusses her time volunteering with a woman’s health clinic where she helped provided emotional support for women receiving care in the clinic. She addressed her preconceived notion about why a woman would seek an abortion and who that woman was. How can we provide support, compassion, and empathy to someone in crisis if we judge their choice on a misguided stereotype?
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States, we all need to change our understanding of reproductive health (especially birth control and abortion). We must listen to women and to medical professionals. This book is the perfect first step for those who never think about abortion or think they don’t know anyone who has ever had one. You may find that the women who chose to share their stories in Zeh’s recent book may have very similar experiences to the women in your life today.
Even though I am not a religious person, I can not speak more highly of this book. It’s refreshing to see a religious official speak so compassionately about such a controversial topic. Zeh’s work is the perfect marriage of compassion and spiritual connection. This could be the perfect book for a religious individual struggling with any difficult choice in their reproductive health.
The Critical Librarian 