Susan Wicklund was twenty-two-years old and juggling three jobs in Portland, Oregon, when she endured a difficult abortion. Partly in response to that experience, she later embarked on an improbable life journey devoted to womens reproductive health, going to medical school while raising a daughter. It was not until she became a doctor that she realized how many women share the ordeal of unwanted pregnancies-and how hidden this common experience remains. This Common Secret is an emotional and dramatic story covering twenty years on the front lines of the abortion war. As we enter the most fevered political fight over abortion that America has ever seen, this raw and revealing memoir shows us what is at stake.

About the Author

Susan Wicklund has been a doctor providing women's reproductive health care, including abortion services, for more than twenty years. She has become increasingly well-known and respected over the years as an authentic and articulate spokeswoman, and her motivation to write this book grew out of her belief that speaking the truth about abortion rights, and sharing her personal story, would honour the thousands of women she has helped over the decades, and offer a powerful counterweight to the voices of protesters and conservatives in the highly-charged political debate.

Prizes

This Common Secret : My Journey as an Abortion Doctor

Reviews

"(This Common Secret) teems with fascinating, often tragic stories... Wicklund's book is a compelling account of the hypocrisy and secrecy that surround this subject." The Guardian "This is shocking stuff, and goes a long way to explaining (Susan Wicklund's) extraordinary sense of being a woman on a mission... Her book... leaves a vivid impression of the damage inflicted on civil society when one side in an important debate resorts to terrorist tactics." The Times"