A powerfully empathetic and impeccably researched look at abortion
clinic escorting, which Rebecca Traister (the New York Times
bestselling author of Good and Mad) calls “one of the most
undercovered and crucial, life-saving, rigorous forms of activism out
there.”
Abortion has been
legal for nearly 50 years in the United States, but the threat to its
existence has never been more pressing. Throughout years of terrorism
and violence, it was clinic escorts—everyday volunteers—who stood
up and found a way to protect abortion access when no one else would.
They have lived, and sometimes died, to make abortion not only
practically accessible but fundamentally human. Clinic escorts have
fought the “abortion wars” on the frontlines, and it is clinic
escorts who will win it, by replacing hostility with humanity.
Through the stories
of volunteers from around the country—including the author’s own
personal story as a clinic escort—interviews with clinic staff and
patients, and research and input from abortion rights experts,
journalist Lauren Rankin’s debut Bodies On the Line makes a
clear case for the right to an abortion as a fundamental part of
human dignity, and the stakes facing us all if it ends. These
harrowing stories will both haunt and inspire readers to pick up
their own proverbial vest and use the power of empathy to defend this
most basic right before it’s too late.
