Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood and Abortion is a collection of stories edited and contributed to by Karen E. Bender and Nina DeGramont, both known for their fictional writing, mainly collections of short-stories. Both have also written novels - Bender: Like Normal People and DeGramont: Gossip of the Starlings.
The reviews are clear that Bender and DeGramont were looking for the voices of women who made their own choice regarding motherhood, and the lives that followed that choice. These stories, like those gathered in The Girls Who Went Away, might overwhelm the reader with their poignancy, lack of a tidy resolution, or the tragedy or euphoria that follows - but this is exactly the point that is so often lost in the bumper sticker war on abortion rights - choice doesn't mean necessarily choosing an abortion, or choosing a birth - it's about having options available so that choosing contraception, choosing abstinence, choosing health, and choosing to say "No" are choices that are heard by everyone and considered by each person as she or he chooses.
This book, Choice:True Stories goes to great lengths to provide a story about the spectrum of reproductive-health decision-making experiences that women and young girls face as they mature physically, emotionally and sexually and like the previous non-fiction books on this list, the voice of each woman is a powerful reminder of the individual. A stark emphasis about why there should be only a movement for easy, safe and affordable access to all reproductive rights, and not a war over who deserves what rights -- because ultimately choices will be made.
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