Real Choices – Book Review
Book Review
Real Choices Frederica Mathewes-Green Multnomah Books, 1994 ISBN 0-88070-678-3
In 1992 the National Women’s Coalition for Life decided to sponsor hearings around the country to better understand why women have abortions. By talking with women who have had abortions, they hoped to find better ways for pro-lifers to help women escape the abortion trap.
The project was called Real Choices, a name which became the title for this book by Frederica Mathewes-Green, the project director, who subsequently interviewed groups of post-aborted women in seven major cities. Real Choices is principally structured around these group discussions, each of which is given its own chapter.
The vast majority of the group participants are women who have already worked through their post-abortion healing. Their matured reflections are filled with valuable insight, yet they retain the emotional power of unrehearsed self-revelation. Mathewes-Green relates the essence of these meetings with just the right amount of detail, giving readers a character sketch of each participant and descriptions of manner and body language which one would expect in a novel. Carefully avoiding the cold and tedious nature of transcripts, Mathewes-Green allows each participant to clearly tell her story in her own words, with the questions and interjections of other participants included so that the dynamic feel of the group’s discussion is retained. In short, the author does an excellent job in portraying the unique “personality” of each group and of the individuals within the groups.
Between each group discussion, Mathewes-Green includes chapters devoted to her own reflections on various issues such as the break down of gender relations and male responsibility, sexual license and pregnancy prevention, the role of crisis pregnancy centers as surrogate fathers, pregnant teens and their parents, adoption, career and schooling paths for single mothers, and the issue of family caps in welfare reform. These chapters are not a complete treatment of any of these topics. Mostly these chapters serve as a notebook for the thoughtful reflections of Mathewes-Green herself. At the very least they are valuable for laying out basic facts and issues which should be of interest to all pro-lifers.
Mathewes-Green’s work is well organized, and her style is friendly and highly readable. She has a penchant for analogies, and often gives us striking ones. On the other hand, her writing occasionally seems to become self-consciously stylistic. For example, there are a few jarring transitions between thoughtful academic passages and the kind of descriptive prose which one would more typically find in a work of popular fiction.
Real Choices certainly succeeds at conveying the dilemmas of women who have faced crisis pregnancies and their vulnerability to abortion. It is less clear that the Real Choices project succeeded in identifying any new or “improved” ways of helping women avoid abortion. Mathewes-Green’s findings confirm that most abortions are the result of flawed or failed relationships. Better advertising for crisis pregnancy services, access to free day care or diapers, and other forms of tangible assistance are all laudable and certainly help to lighten the load of single mothers, but they do not reliably make a difference between the choice for life or the choice for death.
What pregnant women really need is committed relationships. Such relationships cannot be demanded by criminal statute nor purchased with either government grants or the proceeds of a bake sale. They are forged on an individual basis.
In short, if a young woman’s long-standing relationships are not supportive of her maternity, she is in deep trouble. Abortion may easily be perceived as her “only choice.”
Because of this reality, pro-life volunteers who give of themselves to befriend young women in need are truly life savers. Their example of self-giving love on behalf of the woman empowers and encourages her to emulate their love through self-sacrifice for her child. Unfortunately, because we live in a country where pro-abortion counselors are only a phone call away, over a million women each year fail to find the self-sacrificing friendships they need to save their children. Instead, they find the horror of abortion.
— David C. Reardon, Ph.D.
Originally published in The Post-Abortion Review 3(4) Fall 1995. Copyright 1995 Elliot Institute
