Eight years working in abortion provision led the author to make this frank and moving case for safeguarding reproductive freedoms – and ending the culture of secrecy and guilt
It isn’t long into reading Juno Carey’s book that you realise it also serves as a meditation on women and shame. A former NHS midwife who moved into abortion provision (first in clinics then on aftercare helplines), Carey (not her real name) was asked how she could do both, but in her view: “The gap between helping women deliver babies and helping them terminate unwanted pregnancies no longer seems wide to me.” As the title says, it is “a necessary kindness”, another way of aiding pregnant women. While acknowledging the complexities, Carey seeks to demystify abortion – the fact of it, the need for it, the processes of it – to rid it of the long, painful history of judgment, blame and misogynistic juju, and stress its rightful function in a civilised society. Abortion, she asserts, is healthcare.
This is a timely book for driving home the sociopolitical urgency of safeguarding reproductive freedoms. In 2022, the US supreme court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision (which made abortion a constitutional right), leading to sweeping bans and restrictions across the nation. Other countries, including Malta and the United Arab Emirates, operate bans or restrictions. Despite law changes, it’s still complicated to access abortion in Northern Ireland. In the UK, abortion is technically illegal: only accessible if two doctors grant approval and certain criteria are met. While a free parliamentary vote on decriminalisation is expected soon, women (procuring late abortions) have recently been prosecuted using an 1861 law.
