Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars

This book was wonderful. Though on first glance it seems very long and likely dense and dry, it is anything but. Gorney does a fabulous job of presenting both sides of abortion evenly and without bias. And she ties in the thoughts and feelings of the players with the actual battles of the day so smoothly that the book ends up being an easy and very enjoyable read. It should be mandatory reading for anyone involved in, interested in or having an opinion about abortion.

As an adult convert to Catholicism struggling for now five years with infertility, a non-American and the daughter of a founder of my hometown's Family Planning Association, I ordered this book wondering if it would help me sort out my mixed feelings about abortion. When it arrived my heart sank: though I had been interested in the topic, it looked long enough to remind me of the first-grader's book report, ``This told me more than I wanted to know about penguins.'' But it's so well-written, well-peopled and thoughtful it's a joy to read. When Cynthia Gorney describes a pro-choice activist she does it so carefully you feel certain she's pro-choice, and certain you must be. But when she describes a pro-life activist, you realize she might be pro-life -- and so might you be. If we were all be so generous and balanced, so readily able to enter into the subtleties of other people's positions, abortion might never have become a ``war.''

Once in a while, there's a rare book that'll smack you in the noggin, grab you by the lapels and scream, "This is how it really is! Now learn something!" Articles of Faith is one of those books. You'll learn abortion is never nearly so clear cut as "either side" would have you believe; you'll see how each side's arguments, legal status, movements and, later, extremism are developed. But most importantly, you get the honest truth about what it's all really about, or not about. Despite the serious of the issue, I was never even able to get a glimmer of what Gorney's own view is of abortion. It's not simply objective; it never fails to delve into the details of each side, while coming up with an occasional fresh insight.

Having been personally involved in the "abortion wars" in DC during the mid 90's, I found the book gave me a lot more insight into the political and historical aspects of the abortion issue. I wish this book would have come out before I went to Washington; my "political education" would have been faster. I appreciated Gorney profiling the two sides of the debate, it only re-confirmed my belief that we do not live in a black and white world. Regardless of one's position, we are the one's that are ultimately responsible for our own decisions and we are the ones that have to live with them.

I've never read much on the abortion battles. I thought I, like everyone else, knew everything there was to know from reading the papers. Boy, did this book re-do my entire understanding of it all. At first, it just reads like a good story, lots of interesting people, lots of half-remembered events, and then it just keeps getting better --- both sides tell it all, a little at a time to gorney, a veteran washington post reporter, who just keeps telling it all....from both sides. By the end, I was totally transfixed, turned inside out, thinking of it all in ways I'd never thought about it at all. Changes the entire paradigm, as we say. Set in St Louis, where North meets South, and East meets West, there are abortionists with ideals, anti-abortionists with souls, who meet and clash and Gorney gets it all, a prodigious amount of research that tells a great story. Reminds me of Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters and J Anthony Lukas's Common Ground. Just spectacular....I suspect it will be the, and I mean, THE, standard story of these times and this issue in these times. Cannot recommend too highly...especially for those who think they already know it all....(like, do you know the story of the invention of the vacuum aspirator and how it changed history? the guy who did it? and what he really had in mind?)