Not an Easy Choice: Re-examining Abortion. Rev. ed.

Cynthia R. Comacchio is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid
Laurier University. She is the author of Nations Are Built of Babies:
Saving Ontario’s Mothers and Children.

In this revised and updated edition of her 1984 book, Kathleen
McDonnell, feminist, award-winning playwright, author, and Roman
Catholic, once again considers “the Issue that refuses to go away.”
More than 30 years have passed since the landmark American Roe v. Wade
case, which affirmed a woman’s rights to her own body, and the
controversy rarely lets up—despite opinion polls suggesting that the
majority of North Americans, if not actively pro-abortion, are at least
pro-choice. A large part of the problem is that abortion, as the title
suggests—and contrary to what anti-choice campaigners worry about—is
“not an easy choice.” Most women who contemplate abortion do so with
much soul-searching and in the midst of intellectual confusion and
conflicting emotions.

McDonnell not only delves into this entanglement, but also carefully
outlines the ethical debates over abortion. The anti-abortion movement
comes under particular scrutiny as she considers their membership and
the tone and nature of their campaign. Perhaps one of the most
“confusing” issues within the wider context is that of men’s
rights where abortion is the choice made by a woman. McDonnell explores
these aspects of the larger story, within a feminist framework, giving
due consideration to such factors as a rapidly advancing medical
technology.

McDonnell intends this new edition to inform the young woman and men of
today who “never experienced the early struggle for reproductive
rights,” but, given the nature of the subject and the continual
controversy surrounding it, the discussion remains relevant to their own
lives.