GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT LIBERATING ABORTION

• Can you tell the audience about why you decided to write LIBERATING ABORTION?

• You’ve noted that you wanted to write Black and Brown people back into history. What were some of the stories that you found that you wanted to unearth in LIBERATING ABORTION?

• The core of LIBERATING ABORTION is abortion stories of people of color. You interviewed over 50 people of color who’ve had abortions, both about their abortions and their expertise. Why was this perspective central to your book?

• LIBERATING ABORTION is expansive. You start off explaining how pregnancies happen and give a bit of sex ed 101 and then break down the over 6,000-year history of abortion methods, then talk about what got us to this moment, including the history of criminalization, misinformation, and racist policies surrounding reproduction. Why write something so expansive?

REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE FRAMEWORK

• LIBERATING ABORTION is grounded in reproductive justice, a framework that differs from the traditional reproductive rights activism people might be familiar with. Can you talk about what reproductive justice is, how you came to this framework, and why it was important to ground the book in this particular perspective?

• Unlike many books on abortion, LIBERATING ABORTION is not centered on the Roe v. Wade decision or the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decisions. Of course, you talk about the impact of them, but as you tell it, the story of abortion is broader than that. Can you explain why you chose to frame it this way?

• One chapter in LIBERATING ABORTION centers around the right to parent, and you talk about instances in which people have their right to parent taken away from them by the state, police, or through eugenics and sterilization. Abortion is often framed as the right to not be a parent. Is that accurate? Why did you connect these two issues?

• What do you think needs to be changed in the public discourse in how we talk about abortion and reproductive justice?

LEARNINGS & LESSONS

• One interesting thing about LIBERATING ABORTION is how you retell some stories from abortion history with more nuance and accuracy. Can you discuss one of those examples and why you included these retellings?

• You coin the term abortionsplaining in LIBERATING ABORTION and devote an entire chapter to breaking down “abortionsplaining” myths. What is abortionsplaining and what were some of your favorite myths to dispel?

• As I was reading LIBERATING ABORTION, I learned a lot of things I really didn’t know about abortion. [INSERT EXAMPLE OF SOMETHING YOU LEARNED.] I imagine you learned a lot while doing research. What’s something that fascinated you or blew your mind when you learned it?

VALUES & VISIONS

• One of the chapters, Seeing Ourselves: Abortion On-Screen highlights the history of abortion depictions on television and film, but more specifically the way that characters of color have been depicted and the tropes audiences see. Talk about why you included this and what it has to do with people getting abortions in real life.

• What is wrong with how abortion is being framed today? Why do you think it has been and continues to be, framed this way?

• LIBERATING ABORTION is unflinching in the way that it calls for the centering of people of color in our efforts to liberate abortion. Why and how does that look different from what abortion advocacy looks like today?

• In LIBERATING ABORTION, you take some pretty clear stances, such as abolishing the police is essential to liberating abortion and abortion is anti-capitalist. Have you always held those views and if not, how did you come to them as you wrote the book?

• The final chapters of LIBERATING ABORTION are more like guides. There’s a chapter that walks people through what to do if they want an abortion or how to support someone through an abortion. It’s chock full of advice from people who’ve had abortions. And there’s a chapter of beautiful words of wisdom from people who’ve had abortions to others. Why end the book with these chapters?

CLOSING QUESTIONS

• What does liberated abortion look like to you?

• How do you want readers to feel while they’re reading the book and after they’ve finished it?

• What are you hoping the audience takes away from reading LIBERATING ABORTION?