A Spark of Light(110)
XOX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There were multiple professionals in women’s reproductive health and medicine who shared their expertise with me: Linda Griebsch; Julie Johnston, MD; Liz Janiak; Souci Rollins; Susan Yannow; Rebecca Thompson, MD; Margot Cullen, MD. David Toub, MD, gets a special shout-out because he was willing to Skype with me while he was ironing pants on a Saturday night, when I had a question that couldn’t wait.
For showing me the other side: Paul and Erin Manghera.
For their legal brilliance: Maureen McBrien-Benjamin and Jennifer Sargent.
For helping me understand the role of the hostage negotiator: John Grassel and Frank Moran.
For teaching me how to tie a tourniquet and put in a chest tube, just in case this current career doesn’t work out: Shannon Whyte, RN; Sam Provenza; Josh Mancini, MD.
For spirited discussion, and/or for allowing me to steal pieces of their lives: Samantha van Leer, Kyle Tramonte, Abigail Baird, Frankie Ramos, Chelsea Boyd, Steve Alspach, Ellen Sands, Barb Kline-Schoder.
For reading early drafts, back when there were still sixteen main characters: Laura Gross, Jane Picoult, Elyssa Samsel.
For the sensitivity read, spot-on suggestions, and for just being an awesome writer who lets me gripe via text about how hard this job is: Nic Stone.
For being the best in the business: Gina Centrello, Kara Welsh, Kim Hovey, Debbie Aroff, Sanyu Dillon, Rachel Kind, Denise Cronin, Scott Shannon, Matthew Schwartz, Erin Kane, Theresa Zoro, Paolo Pepe, Christine Mykityshyn, Stephanie Reddaway, Susan Corcoran, and Jennifer Hershey. I would not be nearly as willing to walk through fire if you all weren’t at my side.
To the employees of the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, and others who walk the walk: Gloria Gray, Diane Dervis, “Miss Betty,” and Tara; Alesia, Mamie, Renetah, Francia, Tina, Chad, Alfreda, and Jessica.
A giant thank-you to Willie Parker, MD, who educates, inspires, and ministers to those who need it the most. I’m honored to call you a friend, and I’m awfully glad women have you in their corner.
Finally, I am grateful to the 151 women who were willing to tell me about their abortions: Joan Mogul Garrity, Jolene Stark, E. Johnson, “M,” Christine Benjamin, Megan Tilley, Susan (UK), Laura Kelley, Sarah S., Leanne Garifales, Dena, Natasha Sinel, Emma, Jennifer Felix, JLR, Roberta Wasmer, Nina, Eileen, Nancy Emerson, Laura Rooney, Heather C., Jennifer Klemmetson, Alie, Amanda Clark, Heidi, Lorraine Dudley, Brooke, Shirley Vasta, Lisa Larson, Cynthia Brooks, Melissa M., Tori, Kara Clark, Sonia Sharma, Andrea Lutz, Claire, Alison M., Rae S., Megan, Melissa Stander, and the dozens who did not want to be named. It is my hope that as more stories like this are told, fewer women will have to remain anonymous.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following materials were useful to me in the writing of this novel:
Baird, Abigail, Christy Barrow, and Molly Richard. “Juvenile NeuroLaw: When It’s Good It Is Very Good Indeed, and When It’s Bad It’s Horrid.” Journal of Health Care Law and Policy 15 (2012).
Camosy, Charles C. Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2015.
Cohen, David S., and Krysten Connon. Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Eichenwald, Kurt. “America’s Abortion Wars (and How to End Them).” Newsweek, December 25, 2015.
Fernbach, Philip, and Steven Sloman. “Why We Believe Obvious Untruths.” Sunday Review, New York Times, March 3, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/opinion/sunday/why-we-believe-obvious-untruths.html.
Gilligan, Carol, and Mary Field Belenky. “A Naturalistic Study of Abortion Decisions.” New Directions for Child Development 7 (1980).
Graham, Ruth. “A New Front in the War over Reproductive Rights: ‘Abortion-Pill Reversal.’ ” New York Times Magazine, July 18, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/magazine/a-new-front-in-the-war-over-reproductive-rights.html.
Johnson, Abby. Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader’s Eye-Opening Journey Across the Life Line. Tyndale, 2010.
Knapton, Sarah. “Bright Flash of Light Marks Incredible Moment Life Begins When Sperm Meets Egg.” Telegraph, April 26, 2016. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/04/26/bright-flash-of-light-marks-incredible-moment-life-begins-when-s/.
Kowalski, Gary. “The Founding Fathers and Abortion in Colonial America.” American Creation (blog), April 6, 2012. http://americancreation.blogspot.com/2012/04/founding-fathers-and-abortion-in.html.
Miller, Monica Migliorino. Abandoned: The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars. St. Benedict Press, 2012.
Oakes, Kelly. “51 Mind Blowing Facts About Life, the Universe, and Everything.” https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/mind-blowing-facts-about-life-the-universe-and-everything?utm_term=.om3qZdoZjz#.eb2M06802R.
Parker, Willie. Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice. Atria Books, 2017.
Paul, Maureen, et al. Management of Unintended and Abnormal Pregnancy: Comprehensive Abortion Care. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Perrucci, Alissa C. Decision Assessment and Counseling in Abortion Care: Philosophy and Practice. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012.
Pollitt, Katha. “Abortion in American History.” Atlantic, May 1997. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/05/abortion-in-american-history/376851/.