Available Now: A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement
Too often, the public abortion debate depicts the experience of ending a pregnancy in falsely simplistic terms. Anti-abortion activists falsely contend that abortion is always emotionally damaging for the pregnant person, while pro-choice activists focus on honoring bodily autonomy and personal conscience without always giving voice to the nuances of abortion itself. In particular, the pro-choice movement fails to acknowledge that some people experience abortion as a kind of loss.
A Complicated Choice addresses the fact that abortion stigma is ubiquitous, even among those who identify as pro-choice. We have not been supportive of people who have abortions, especially those whose experiences are complicated and involve grief and loss. Bringing the reader along the journeys of those who have had abortions, Rev. Katey Zeh opens up space for the complexities of our reproductive lives, giving voice to the experiences of grief, loss, and healing surrounding abortion experiences. She weaves these personal stories with key insights from the fields of psychology, theology, and public policy to illuminate the systemic injustices that undergird the conditions that shape a person’s decision to end a pregnancy.
A Complicated Choice goes beyond the falsely simplistic terms “pro-life” and “pro-choice” that define the public abortion debate and centers the real people making the decision to end a pregnancy in the context of their full lives and circumstances. A call to people of faith and to all people to examine our judgments about people who have abortions, we are invited into the act of sacred listening to the real stories of those most impacted. By focusing on these experiences, we will be drawn away from the stalemate of debate and into a spiritual response rooted in compassion for those who end pregnancies.
Women Rise Up: Sacred Stories of Resistance for Today’s Revolution
Ruth was an undocumented migrant worker at risk of sexual violence.
Hannah struggled with depression over her infertility.
Mary Magdalene witnessed the execution of her friend.
And yet, each of these biblical women discovered powerful ways to resist by claiming the power of their innate sacred worth.
Women Rise Up: Sacred Stories of Resistance for Today’s Revolution invites us all to take a closer look at women’s stories in our sacred texts that are often left out of sermons and bible studies. What can we learn from these foremothers of our faith that will help guide us in our collective struggle for gender justice today?
This book is a catalyst for sacred conversations that will spark your imagination for a more just, compassionate world for all.