The Means of Reproduction

Informationen zum Autor Michelle Goldberg is an investigative journalist and the author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism , a New York Time s Bestseller which was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. A former senior writer at Salon.com, her work has appeared in Glamour, The New Republic, Rolling Stone, The Guardian (UK) and many other publications, and she has taught at NYU's graduate school of journalism. The Means of Reproduction won the 2008 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award. Klappentext New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg's brilliant investigation of the global struggle over women's reproductive rights-"the worldwide battle between the forces of modernity and those of reaction, being fought on the terrain of women's bodies" Through Goldberg's meticulous reporting across four continents, The Means of Reproduction highlights the past and present of feminist activism around the world. In the face of a new wave of authoritarianism, we can look to the stories within this book-from an abortion provider turned health minister of Ghana to survivors of domestic abuse in India to pioneers of access to birth control throughout the Global South-as both blueprint and inspiration. With broad historical scope and lucid prose, Goldberg's analysis demonstrates that women's rights are key to flourishing societies. INTRODUCTION: THE GLOBAL BATTLE FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Eunice Brookman-Amissah, the former health minister of Ghana, calls the death of her teenage patient Amina the beginning of her road to Damascus. The stepdaughter of an Anglican archbishop, Brookman-Amissah was brought up in a very conservative home, and those values stayed with her when she went to medical school. In the Accra teaching hospital where she trained in the late 1960s, young women who came in with botched abortions were put in a place called Chenard Ward. There were at least ten of them every day. They were kept there bleeding and feverish and dirty until all the other cases were donethen it was time to do the evacuations, she told me. They were kept on the floor. Even when there were beds, these women were put on the floor. People stepped on them and insulted them and called them namesthis is how horrible it was! Brookman-Amissah did not, at the time, see all this as particularly outrageous. We were brought up to think that women who had had unsafe abortions were criminals, she said. They were bad women. They were the scum of this earth. After graduating, Brookman-Amissah went into private practice. She looked after a poor Muslim family who lived very close by. Their daughter, Amina, was exceptionally bright. Her parents were illiterate, but she was going to school, Brookman-Amissah said. Amina called her Auntie Doctor, and liked to hang out at her clinic and talk to the nurses, saying she would be one herself one day. In 1992, when Amina was fourteen, she came to the clinic one Friday. As Brookman-Amissah remembers it, she was agitated and had been crying. A man in her compound, she said, had given her money to give to a doctor to make her period come. My first reaction was one of outrage, said Brookman-Amissah. 'Amina, how dare you talk to me about that? Don't you know we don't do that here! Naughty girl!' That sort of thing. Brookman-Amissah asked Amina to send her mother on Monday so they could talk. I can still see the look in her eyes, she said. But on Monday, no one came. Nor on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she heard drumming and commotion outside. A nurse told Brookman-Amissah what it was. Doctor, she said, that's Amina. They've gone to bury her. The man who got her pregnant had taken her for an abortion over the weekend, and it had killed her. Was Amina really a criminal? she remembers thinking. Maybe I'm the criminal. That man, that old...

Autorentext

Michelle Goldberg

Klappentext

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg's brilliant investigation of the global struggle over women's reproductive rights-"the worldwide battle between the forces of modernity and those of reaction, being fought on the terrain of women's bodies"

Through Goldberg's meticulous reporting across four continents, The Means of Reproduction highlights the past and present of feminist activism around the world. In the face of a new wave of authoritarianism, we can look to the stories within this book-from an abortion provider turned health minister of Ghana to survivors of domestic abuse in India to pioneers of access to birth control throughout the Global South-as both blueprint and inspiration. With broad historical scope and lucid prose, Goldberg's analysis demonstrates that women's rights are key to flourishing societies.

Zusammenfassung
"Think of Goldberg as the Al Gore of a sexual equality crisis. Reproductive freedom is not just a matter of justice, it's a matter of survival." - *The American Prospect

New York Times* columnist Michelle Goldberg's brilliant investigation of the global struggle over women's reproductive rights—"the worldwide battle between the forces of modernity and those of reaction, being fought on the terrain of women's bodies"

*Through Goldberg's meticulous reporting across four continents, *The Means of Reproduction highlights the past and present of feminist activism around the world. In the face of a new wave of authoritarianism, we can look to the stories within this book—from an abortion provider turned health minister of Ghana to survivors of domestic abuse in India to pioneers of access to birth control throughout the Global South—as both blueprint and inspiration. With broad historical scope and lucid prose, Goldberg's analysis demonstrates that women's rights are key to flourishing societies.

Leseprobe

INTRODUCTION: THE GLOBAL BATTLE FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Eunice Brookman-Amissah, the former health minister of Ghana, calls the death of her teenage patient Amina the beginning of her road to Damascus. The stepdaughter of an Anglican archbishop, Brookman-Amissah was brought up in a very conservative home, and those values stayed with her when she went to medical school. In the Accra teaching hospital where she trained in the late 1960s, young women who came in with botched abortions were put in a place called Chenard Ward. There were at least ten of them every day. “They were kept there bleeding and feverish and dirty until all the other cases were done—then it was time to do the evacuations,” she told me. “They were kept on the floor. Even when there were beds, these women were put on the floor. People stepped on them and insulted them and called them names—this is how horrible it was!”

Brookman-Amissah did not, at the time, see all this as particularly outrageous. “We were brought up to think that women who had had unsafe abortions were criminals,” she said. “They were bad women. They were the scum of this earth.”

After graduating, Brookman-Amissah went into private practice. She looked after a poor Muslim family who lived very close by. Their daughter, Amina, was exceptionally bright. “Her parents were illiterate, but she was going to school,” Brookman-Amissah said. Amina called her “Auntie Doctor,” and liked to hang out at her clinic and talk to the nurses, saying she would be one herself one day.

In 1992, when Amina was fourteen, she came to the clinic one Friday. As Brookman-Amissah remembers it, she was agitated and had been crying. A man in her compound, she said, had given her money to give to a doctor to make her period come. “My first reaction was one of outrage,” said Brookman-Amissah. “ ‘Amina, how dare you talk to me about that? Don’t you know we don’t do that here! Naughty girl!’ That sort of thing.” Brookman-Amissah asked Amina to …