Given No Choice

A History of Abortion Rights

in English, 416 pages,
Cody McDevitt, January 03, 2026
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A sweeping narrative history of abortion rights in America — from whispered remedies and underground networks to the legal battles, activists, and political forces that shaped modern reproductive freedom.

For more than a century, the fight for abortion access has been told in fragments — court cases, headlines, protests, and political battles that rarely capture the human story underneath. Given No Choice brings those pieces together. Drawing on archival research, rare interviews, oral histories, legislative transcripts, and firsthand accounts, Cody McDevitt weaves an urgent, intimate, and deeply human history of how abortion rights were won, lost, and defended across generations.

From midwives and discreet physicians operating in the shadows, to the women forced into dangerous decisions, to the organizers and attorneys who risked livelihoods to challenge the law, this book lays bare the truth: abortion in America has never been just a medical issue — it has always been a struggle for autonomy, dignity, and power.