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.
