New book explores New York's early efforts to advance abortion rights, combat sterilization abuse

Dr. Felicia Kornbluh draws upon mother's story to detail important part of feminist history

A forthcoming book details the connection between the effort to decriminalize abortion and the fight against sterilization abuse that affected women of color in earlier American history. 

Felicia Kornbluh focuses her attention on New York in A Woman’s Life is a Human Life. In the work, she talks about her mother’s experience in the campaign and that of her close friend and neighbor, Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, a Puerto Rican woman and leader against sterilization abuse. Like many retrospectives, it’s a case study of what worked historically and what can be adopted today for the same effect. 

Kornbluh is a professor of history and gender studies at the University of Vermont. Her mother, Beatrice, worked to repeal all abortion laws in the state during the 1960s. Rodriguez-Trias led a prominent career in feminism and liberalism, which culminated with a Presidential Citizen’s Medal awarded by Bill Clinton in 2001, weeks before he left office. 

The book delves into the history of eugenics and ableism, with references to Planned Parenthood distancing itself from Margaret Sanger’s legacy as a result of those things as well as the birth control trials in Puerto Rico. 

The book shows that movements often overlap and weave into one fabric. The efforts of women of color during the second wave laid the foundation for what developed into the reproductive justice philosophy in the late 1980s and early 1990s that was pioneered by women like Byllye Avery, Dazon Dixon Diallo and Loretta Ross, who is featured in the book. 

The Clergy Consultation Service is also described in Kornbluh’s research. The organization began in New York, with Howard Moody being its founder. Lawrence Lader, a pioneering abortion rights advocate and respected journalist, also played a role in the book, as did Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan–who were rivals within the feminist movement, though that isn’t detailed in great depth within this book. We also learn about the Redstockings along with their visionary leader, Lucinda Cisler, who predicted much of the challenges abortion rights activists would face in the ensuing decades. 

Another aspect of feminism that needed to be explored in recent years by journalists was the division during the second wave between heterosexual and lesbian women. Kornbluh talks about some of the homophobia in the book. If this is something that fascinates readers, they should also read Susan Brownmiller’s memoir, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution, which explains how some heterosexual women within the feminist movement wanted to include men more. It’s important history as women today still grapple with how to intersect traditionally feminist concerns with those coming from the LGBTQ community. 

Kornbluh’s book is available for pre-order on Amazon.