Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights

Gr 9 Up–Blumenthal provides a forthright deep dive into the history of reproductive rights from the 1800s until modern times. She relays details about the legal cases that helped change the way women could make choices about their bodies. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the history of women’s health and also obtain insight into the lives of the women who braved it all. The author discusses exactly how limiting reproductive rights impacted women of color and women living in poverty, including information about the horrors of forced sterilization. The more sordid histories of some reproductive rights advocates are also not glossed over, such as Margaret Sanger’s support for eugenics. Short vignettes cover a fact, person, or short history previously mentioned in the chapter. The closer looks at statistics, time lines, and injustices flow with the overall narrative structure. Photographs put faces to the names of those mentioned. A glossary of legal and medical terms, a time line of events, a list of significant Supreme Court cases on abortion and reproductive rights, a bibliography, and an extensive list of source notes round out this methodically researched work.