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An abortion provider and Christian reproductive justice advocate draws from his personal journey and professional scientific training as a doctor to reveal how he came to believe, unequivocally, that helping women in need, without judgment, is precisely the Christian thing to do. Dr. Willie Parker grew up in the Deep South, lived in a Christian household, and converted to an even more fundamentalist form of Christianity as a young man. But upon reading an interpretation of the Good Samaritan in a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he realized that in order to be a true Christian, he must show compassion for all women regardless of their needs. In 2009, he stopped practicing obstetrics to focus on providing safe abortions for the women who need help the most -- often women in poverty and women in the South, the hotbed of the pro-choice debate. He soon thereafter traded in his private practice and his penthouse apartment in Hawaii for the life of an itinerant abortion provider, moving between Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Dr. Willie Parker tells a deeply personal narrative, one that illuminates the complex societal, political, religious, and personal realities of abortion in the United States from the perspective of someone who performs them and defends the right to do so every day. He also looks at how a new wave of anti-abortion activism, aimed at making incremental changes in laws and regulations state by state, is chipping away at the rights of women to control their own lives. In revealing his daily battle against mandatory waiting periods, bogus rules, and pseudoscience, Dr. Parker uncovers the growing number of strings attached to a woman's right to choose and makes a powerful Christian case for championing reproductive rights.… (more)
User reviews
Aspects of this book I particularly enjoyed/appreciated: the ways in which Parker's faith and morality have been guided by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other peace and justice activists, his "life is a process" position, and his careful dismantling of the ways we've come to view Christianity, conservative politics, and the cluster of positions often called "family values" as inseparable -- revealing all of these interpretations and associations as choices -- and giving thoughtful, moral, meaningful interpretations of those oft-referenced Bible verses and political positions. I especially appreciated his direct takedown of the "abortion is black genocide" propaganda.
I do disagree with a few of Parker's positions, but I respect the way he centers the women he serves and the Christian imperative to "judge not" in his decision making.
A compelling read.
This book will not convince those who believe that abortion is murder and that is the end of
Dr. Parker's personal story is also well worth reading--his path to becoming a doctor was far from simple, and his decision to return to the South to serve the women there was not easy. It's a reminder of the many difficulties children, especially black children, face in order to succeed.
There were two specific small details that did not sit well with me. One was his assertion (repeated twice) that fetuses do not feel pain before 29 weeks. I don't know the science about fetuses in-utero and pain, but what I do know is that claims about pain have been used to deny that early preemies do not feel pain--and many NICU parents can tell you otherwise. I don't know if this is an error of science or phrasing, since it's clearly intended to apply to abortion and not to preemies in a NICU. Two, he slams perinatal hospice as a pro life front. Pro life activists may have latched on to perinatal hospice, and there may not be a defined medical protocol for it yet, but I have read about hospice programs that were helpful to families.