My Review<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cIn the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade,\u00a0the US Supreme Court established a woman\u2019s constitutional right to abortion, ruling that states could not prohibit abortions during the first trimester, and could only regulate them to protect the health of the pregnant person during the second trimester, and could ban them outright after the point of fetal viability (around 24 weeks).<\/p>\n
\u201cOn June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion and allowing states to regulate or ban abortion.\u201d I mention this because I am in the UK and my fellow Brits may need some background.<\/p>\n
Many states in the US now ban a woman\u2019s \u2018right to choose\u2019. The extent of the ban varies and in some states includes rape and incest, such as forcing a 12-year-old girl to go to full term, even if she was raped by her own father. Abortion is still legal in some states, but in others it is even illegal to travel to one of those states to seek medical intervention. And the doctor can go to prison as well for \u2018helping\u2019.<\/p>\n
So what would happen if men had babies instead of women? In Jodi Picoult\u2019s latest short story Choice<\/em>, 32-year-old James wakes up one morning and discovers he is pregnant. He then finds out that there are tens of thousands of other pregnant men in the US. All of them had to have had intercourse.<\/p>\nJames recently split up from long term partner Margot, having told her he never wanted kids. At one point he asks her if it\u2019s his fault that he is pregnant because of what he said. She tells him that even he is not that important. <\/p>\n
Well the first thing most of the men want to do is terminate the unplanned pregnancy. But of course it\u2019s now illegal and \u2018men\u2019 made the laws. But then it didn\u2019t affect them, did it? They didn\u2019t need to worry about being passed over for promotion, or the pain of labour, or losing their figures. Not that any of those would be the real reasons for undergoing a termination. Being a single mother, having no access to healthcare, no medical insurance, no way of bringing up a child alone, emotionally or financially, would be nearer the mark. Or being raped, or incest.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s such an interesting take on things. I won\u2019t tell you the whole story. You need to listen and decide for yourself what you think.<\/p>\n
Many thanks to\u00a0@lovebookstours<\/a>\u00a0for inviting me to be part of the audio tour.<\/p>\nAbout the Author<\/strong><\/p>\nJodi Picoult\u00a0is the #1\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0bestselling author of twenty-eight novels, including\u00a0Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time<\/em>, and\u00a0My Sister\u2019s Keeper<\/em>, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels,\u00a0Between the Lines<\/em>, Off the Page<\/em> and Mad Honey<\/em>. Picoult lives in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
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