Abortion wars

Abortion is like religion, politics or a drunken rendezvous after a night at Fanny Ann’s Saloon in Old Sac—people don’t like to talk about it. It’s the ugly stepchild or the elephant in the room of colloquial conversation. It’s sad, actually, that people would rather rattle on about the weather than women’s health-care reform and abortion. That is why there are people like Carole Joffe, professor emeritus of sociology at UC Davis. She talks openly about abortion, and writes about it. She’ll make an appearance at the UC Davis Bookstore to discuss her new book, Dispatches From the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us. Joffe’s book reveals the stigma associated with abortion, toward women and physicians—even in cases of rape or threat to a mother’s life. It’s a discussion that shouldn’t be avoided, even in a post-Roe v. Wade world. There also will be a Q-and-A session and a book signing.

Carole Joffe will speak Wednesday, February 17 from noon to 1:30 p.m.; bookstore lounge in Memorial Union on the UC Davis campus; free; http://bookstore.ucdavis.edu.