Without Exception: Reclaiming Abortion, Personhood, and Freedom

In Without Exception: Reclaiming Abortion, Personhood, and Freedom, Pam Houston (Deep CreekContents May Have Shifted) collects "facts and impressions in and around the subject of abortion," weaving the political history of reproductive freedoms in the United States with her personal experiences with abortion in a collection that is as appropriately tangled, layered, and complex as the issues she is writing about.

Houston outlines the short-lived history of abortion rights in the United States, lasting "forty-nine years, five months, and two days" between the passing of Roe v. Wade in 1973 and its eventual fall with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022--a span of time that almost perfectly aligned with the span of Houston's own "reproductive life." Without Exception is rife with facts but a far cry from a dry history of abortion rights; each element of this broader political and cultural history is important, relevant, and necessary for understanding the context of each of Houston's three abortions and her commitment to remain childless by choice.

This mix of the personal and the political is where Without Exception truly shines, as Houston writes with candor and urgency about her experience of abuse, abortion, and the freedom to choose her own path in life. "Feminism is every woman's right to her own story," reads the entirety of chapter 24, and this is Houston's: a timeless story of self-determination inextricably intertwined with a political moment in time, a personal reckoning that lays bare the heart of the fight for reproductive justice, and an urgent and heartfelt reminder to give and receive love and mercy to each other--and to ourselves. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

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