Unbearable: Five Women and the Perils of Pregnancy in America

by Irin Carmon Narrated by Not Yet Available

Overview

From the award-winning New York magazine reporter and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Notorious RBG, an ambitious and passionate exploration of what's gone wrong with pregnancy in America, through the lens of history, politics, and the searing experiences of five women.

Journalist Irin Carmon was eight months pregnant when the Supreme Court allowed states to ban abortion, unleashing pain and suffering for those who didn't want to be pregnant and, shockingly to some, those who did. What was clear to Carmon from her dozen years of reporting-and from what she felt in her bones-was how incomplete the American story of reproduction had been, and how much had been unexpressed, hidden, or taken for granted, and not just by conservative justices or in red states. Whether in cosmopolitan, liberal New York City or rural Alabama, the entire system is broken.

Unbearable tells a deeper story, going beyond the headlines and any one experience or choice, and grounded in history and journalism. It introduces us to five women navigating pregnancy care-from that first positive pregnancy test through joy, loss, and the unforeseen-in a country that is at best indifferent and at worst willfully cruel, and to brave, outnumbered people fighting to make it better. Written with deep empathy and analytical rigor, Unbearable is at once a moving story of interconnection, a harrowing exposé, and assertion of humanity. Above all, it is a powerful call for solidarity, regardless of our circumstances or our decisions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"In Unbearable, Irin Carmon does the urgent work of chronicling the challenges facing America's pregnant people and reproductive healthcare providers as they seek the resources, attention and protections they require. Carmon treats the stories of pregnancy—stories marked by hope, expansion, restriction, grief, fury and love—with tenderness and respect. It shouldn't be so astonishing to read about those laboring to bring forth another generation as fully human and therefore worthy of better policy and more accessible care, but it is. To crib from Carmon's own description of pregnancy itself, Unbearable is by turns euphoric and excruciating, above all a radical call for a brighter and more dignified future for people and their families."
—Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad

"An inspiring, agonizing, and enraging chronicle of what it means to be pregnant in this America, told with a novelistic eye for detail and texture. A great read."
–Chris Hayes, author of The Sirens’ Call

“In Unbearable, Irin Carmon draws on journalistic rigor, historical insight, and the powerful stories of five women from different walks of life to expose how intensifying fetal protection policies deny women’s autonomy and assault their humanity. With a holistic view of our reproductive lives, she reveals the deep, often overlooked connections between policies that turn pregnant bodies into political battlegrounds. This is essential reading for anyone committed to reproductive justice and building a more humane, compassionate world.”
–Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body and Torn Apart

“Every once in a while, a book comes along that shifts the way we see something we thought we already understood. With intellectual rigor, fierce clarity and uncommon empathy, Unbearable, is one of those books. In the process of writing about the lives of five women in America, Irin Carmon reveals the urgency of understanding every pregnancy as a matter of our politics.”
—Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her and All We Want Is Everything

“Pregnancy and childbearing may be the oldest things human beings do, but Carmon tells a new and bracing story of what pregnancies actually cost those who carry them in a nation that values women very little. Wrenching, deeply reported, and particularly urgent in an era of abortion bans, I wish Unbearable was required reading for every lawmaker, every voter, and every person in America.”
–Jill Filipovic, author of OK Boomer

“Irin Carmon has written a deeply nuanced and moving book that is both a painful reality check and a love letter to women left behind and rendered invisible in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Unbearable breaks the silence on the tragic perils of pregnancy in America.”
—Michele Bratcher Goodwin, author of Policing the Womb

“Irin Carmon brings together powerful and intimate stories of people navigating the spectrum of pregnancy in America. From racial biases and restrictive laws, these narratives describe the deeply fraught system that makes being pregnant anything but easy or safe. Unbearable reminds us that we are not alone and that when we stand up for the pregnant people and their families, we make the world better for all of us.”
—Meera Shah, Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic and author of You’re the Only One I’ve Told

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192930564
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/28/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged