PublicAffairs Books good books about things that matter
Book Jacket THIS COMMON SECRET
My Journey as an Abortion Doctor
SUSAN WICKLUND
WITH ALAN KESSELHEIM
SUMMARY  |  EXCERPT   |  AUTHOR'S NOTE   |  QUOTES
One doctor's raw and riveting memoir, contrasting the headline-grabbing political rhetoric with the contours of her life, and the lives of her patients

In This Common Secret Dr. Susan Wicklund chronicles her emotional and dramatic twenty-year career on the front lines of the abortion war. Growing up in working class, rural Wisconsin, Wicklund had her own painful abortion at a young age. It was not until she became a doctor that she realized how many women shared her ordeal of an unwanted pregnancy—and how hidden this common experience remains.

This is the story of Susan's love for a profession that means listening to women and helping them through one of the most pivotal and controversial events in their lives. Hers is also a calling that means sleeping on planes and commuting between clinics in different states—and that requires her to wear a bulletproof vest and to carry a .38 caliber revolver. This is also the story of the women whom Susan serves, women whose options are increasingly limited.

Through these intimate, complicated, and inspiring accounts, Wicklund reveals the truth about the women's clinics that anti-abortion activists portray as little more than slaughterhouses for the unborn. As we enter the most fevered political fight over abortion America has ever seen, this raw and powerful memoir shows us what is at stake.

Susan Wicklund has worked in the field of women's reproductive health for more than twenty years. For much of that time she has been on the front lines of the abortion war, both as a doctor and as a spokeswoman for women's rights. She has been interviewed by numerous leading media outlets, including 60 Minutes and "Fresh Air." Alan Kesselheim is a full-time freelance writer from Bozeman, Montana. This Common Secret is his ninth book.

Advance reading copies
National television and radio publicity
Reading group promotion
Author appearances
On-line marketing
PAPERBACK
ISBN 978-1-58648-647-1
Pub date: 12/29/08
Price: $13.95/16.50 Canada
5 1/2 x 8 1/4
288 pages
Carton Quantity: 24
Medicine, Memoir
Selling Territory: W
Pub history: Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-58648-480-4

   ABOUT US    STAFF DIRECTORY    ORDERING INFORMATION    PRIVACY POLICY