Review by Evelyn Williamson
Deep Care: The Radical Activists Who Provided Abortions, Defied the Law, and Fought to Keep Clinics Open
By Angela Hume
I could not put this book down. While the writing quality wasn’t great, the content was enough to keep me hooked. (This book was published by AK press. There is something wonderful about a book about self-help radical activism being published by a group that reflects self-help radical activism.) Deep Care tells the story of the fight for reproductive rights here in Oakland. It starts before Roe, but it doesn’t end there. The people in this history put their hearts into their work and their lives on the line to fight, not only for the right to have an abortion, but for the right to bodily autonomy with access to judgment free healthcare, no matter who you were or how you identified. They built places where communities came together to take care of each other, where they taught people about their own bodies, and empowered them to take control of their lives and their health. (Community, health, empowerment- these things are our guiding principles here at SOAP too.) One of my favorite parts of the story is how the clinic featured in this book opened a sperm bank, and was the first one in the country to provide sperm to single people and non-heterosexual couples who wanted to have kids.
We just passed the 51st anniversary of Roe, and we currently face a reality in which bodily autonomy is being aggressively stripped away in the post Roe-era. This is an important history to know, to inspire us for the fights ahead. And another example of Oakland’s radical past to be proud of.
