Controlling Women - Kathryn Kolbert & Julie F. Kay

Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now To Save Reproductive Freedom 

Welcome to Volumes of Value! This blog has been a long time in the making and I’m so excited to finally publish my first post. After about a month of not finishing a single book I finally got myself back into reading with the recently published book Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now To Save Reproductive Freedom by Kathryn Kolbert & Julie F. Kay and figured why not try and review it? So here we go! 

                                                

Although I’ve never written a full review before, I figure there can’t be a better place to start than with a quick background of what this book is about and who it’s by. So let's get into that.

Controlling Women, as the namely so obviously states, is about reproductive freedom, specifically, the right to have abortions. Published recently, in July of 2021, it covers decades of reproductive history in the U.S, centering the ever important passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973 as well as the more frequently forgotten case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, passed in 1992. Don’t know much about these cases yet? Don’t worry, this book has you covered! After covering years of crucial history, Controlling Women proceeds to outline numerous examples of what can be done now, to protect the reproductive rights granted in Roe, as well as to gain more. 

On to the authors now, I think it would be near impossible to find a pair of people more qualified to write a book on reproductive freedom than Kathryn Kolbert and Julie F. Kay. They both have had long, critical careers in advocating for women’s rights. Specifically, Kolbert argued (and won) the previously mentioned case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey while Kay paved to way for the legalization of abortion in Ireland. The authors’ insider viewpoint and wide range of experiences end up being some of the biggest pros of this book which we’ll get to next. 

Pros (not listed in order of significance):

1. Overall format 

1. Controlling Women is only 230 pages long and the pages are not word dense. Although I wouldn’t classify the chapters as short they weren’t obnoxiously long, rather a good length to take one at a time. 

2. The Writing Style 

1. Overall I found the book to be very well written. Although there were some pages of dull legal jargon there were also rich descriptions, stories told like thrillers, and even some funny lines and jibes. It was also clear that the authors were writing to us as readers, and trying to make a complex topic more accessible for more people.

3. Emotional 

1. To piggyback off of my last bullet point, I found Controlling Women  to be quite emotional at certain points. I mean it’s hard not to feel anger and resentment towards laws, lawmakers, and anti abortion activists, when criminalizing abortion has such drastic consequences. But aside from anger and grief at the stories of women who lost so much, including in some cases, their lives, the book also had some truly inspirational moments where I was filled with pride and awe for the activists who have done so much to advance reproductive rights. The feelings Controlling Women provoked made it such a more gripping text and one that will stay with me for a long time. 

4. Centering Marginalized Women 

1. From page two Kolbert and Kay made clear that although all most cisgender women are affected by abortion bans, women of color and poor women are affected disproportionately. 

5. Beyond Abortion

1. While it was made evident how important the legalization and accessibility of abortion is, nowhere did the book claim abortion rights are the end all be all. The authors included sections on the importance of scientifically accurate, inclusive, SexEd, access to contraceptives as well as resources for those who do choose to become parents, just to name a few. 

6. A Good Starting Point 

1. As someone who had almost no previous experience reading about supreme court, and other legal cases, I feel that Controlling Women did a good job of breaking down all the concepts. They provided countless examples, explained what might be considered basic terms, and the authors repeated themselves enough that I rarely found myself completely lost. 

Cons (not listed in order of importance):

1. Lack of Gender-Inclusive Language

1. In the introduction Kay and Kolbert write, “We recognize that transgender men and non-binary people (TGNB) also seek abortions. Therefore, where possible, we use gender-inclusive language.” Because they included this disclaimer I was on more of a lookout to see if they would follow through with their promise and as far as I noticed they did not. For example, they say, “The farther a teen needs to travel, the greater the likelihood that she will be unable to have an abortion.” I find that they harmfully imply here, that only teenage girls are restricted when it comes to abortion access, which is funny to me because the book also mentions that ignoring TGNB teens is very harmful to their mental health. A specific example yes, but just something that I thought I should note.

2. Controlling Women 

1. I don’t think, and maybe this is just my opinion, that Controlling Women provided enough emphasis and explanation as to why criminalizing abortion is just a tool of the patriarchy to control women. Yes, there were mentions, but for a book where the concept is literally the title, much more could have been done. Especially because, to add on to the last section, Kay and Kolbert wrote that although they  try to use gender-inclusive language, “we emphasis throughout misogyny, discrimination, and control of women are the foundation of anti-abortion sentiment”, and while I don’t disagree, I feel they did a bad job proving this is true.

3. One Very Poorly Executed Example (CW; discussion of statutory rape)

    a. Perhaps the biggest red flag I found while reading this book, in fact it almost made me abandon it entirely, was the way they handled one of the examples they used. I will explain the example here, so I guess a quick spoiler warning, although I doubt it would spoil anything. In Chapter 6, they describe a situation where a woman helped her son’s girlfriend obtain an abortion by taking her to an abortion center outside of her town. It says “Lane had dated Hartford’s eighteen-year-old son, Micheal Kilmer, had sex with him, and became pregnant.” Right before this we learn that Lane was 13 years old. A 13 year old does not “have sex” with an 18, that is a case of statutory rape. Only a few pages later we learn that Kilmer did in fact serve several months in prison due to two statutory rape convictions, so why didn’t the authors emphasize this point? It would not have weakened their argument to clarify that under no circumstances is that acceptable and even if it had then so what? They should have just found a different example.




I hope at this point that I've gotten my likes and dislikes across well enough, so I'll end here with the goal of this review not becoming way too long.




Overall, despite the fact that I am almost DNF (did not finish) it, I’m glad that I read through to the end and I think that Controlling Women is an extremely important new text as well as an inspirational one. I give Controlling Women 4.5 stars.