We Choose To: A Memoir of Providing Abortion Care Before, During, and After Roe

by Curtis Boyd MD, Glenna Halvorson-Boyd PhD, RN

Overview

"An invaluably intimate glimpse at a delicate subject. It’s a must-read."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“We Choose To is a story of love, shared humanity, and the power of choosing to stare injustice in the face and do something about it.”
—Cecile Richards, former President of Planned Parenthood

In this deeply personal account, Dr. Curtis Boyd and Dr. Glenna Halvorson-Boyd reflect on their lives in abortion care, from the childhood experiences that shaped their paths to the Supreme Court decision that forced the closure of their Dallas clinic.

Their stories begin in the 1960s, as Curtis opens a clandestine abortion practice while breaking with the beliefs of his Baptist family and Glenna pursues psychology while coming to understand the world of restrictive gender roles. When the two of them meet shortly after abortion is legalized, they bond over a common commitment to women, forming a professional and personal partnership that will weather the coming decades.

We Choose To is the story of that partnership, and the staff and patients that have shaped the history of modern abortion. In these pages, Curtis and Glenna share their holistic, morally rooted approach to their work. Led by a desire to empower patients, they advance abortion and mental health care further than ever even as they find themselves at the center of a controversial new issue in American life.

Sweeping, introspective, and deeply honest, We Choose To is a rare portrait of abortion providers and the world in which they work, where abortion is not a talking point in a culture war but a private, even spiritual, act.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633310872
Publisher:	Disruption Books
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	473,944
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Curtis Boyd, MD, is nationally known for developing abortion procedures and standards of care. He is also recognized for his expertise in pain management and minimizing surgery risk. Furthermore, Dr. Boyd was involved in establishing the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and is a founding member of the Federation’s Board of Directors. NAF serves as a forum for abortion providers and others committed to providing quality abortion services so that they remain accessible to all women.

Glenna Halvorson-Boyd, PhD, RN, served on National Abortion Federation’s Board of directors and as NAF’s president for two years (1984-1986). She is an accomplished counselor, trainer, and consultant with a national reputation for her training of professionals in this field. Dr. Halvorson-Boyd has a PhD in Human and Organizational Development. Her previous publications include the book Dancing in Limbo: Making Sense of Life after Cancer.

Read an Excerpt

Prologue
December 25, 1988

Glenna

We'd had a perfect Christmas Eve in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our youngest son, Kyle, was home from university, and after an early dinner we'd bundled ourselves against the cold and walked on Santa Fe's historic East Side for hours. The night was clear, the sky filled with stars, and the streets lined with tiny hand-made lanterns, farolitos, with their candles burning in brown paper bags. Larger fires marked street corners-luminaria of carefully stacked logs where carolers gathered to sing and neighbors shared hot cider or chocolate. Those flames had meant warmth and fellowship, not premonition.

In the middle of the night, I was on the phone with airlines, booking the first flight back to Dallas. Our Christmas in Santa Fe was over, and the holiday would forever hold a different meaning in our lives.

Christmas Eve and another abortion clinic set ablaze was an old story, even then, but that night the clinic burning in Dallas was ours. When the phone woke me from sleep, it could only be bad news.

With the words, "We've had a fire…" my eyes filled with tears.

"Anyone hurt?"

"No."

"Good." I could go numb and into action mode-my classic defense against horrors, and it comes in handy.

When we arrived in Dallas, we learned there had been three suspicious fires that night-all at Dallas clinics providing abortions. They fit the pattern of Christmas Eve arsons that began in Pensacola, Florida in 1983, when the arsonists proudly claimed their handiwork as gifts to the Baby Jesus. And, like all the Christmas Eve arsons that followed, ours would never be solved.

The police guard on duty at the clinic met us in the back parking lot. In the slant afternoon light of winter, we walked the perimeter of what had been the administrative office at the rear of the building. Portions of the pitched roof had collapsed atop the remains of batten board walls and sheetrock. Desks and chairs, typewriters, file cabinets and huge shards of plate glass that had once been windows poked out of the blackened heap. The guard explained that this was where the fire had been set. A patch of grass and wooden fence along the alley had been doused with gasoline, then lit.

I had expected a dismal scene but somehow the reality was more wrenching, in part because Kyle was with us. I had always hoped to protect the children- perhaps a futile wish, but one I'd clung to. Providing abortions had been our career choice, not theirs. Kyle's older brother and sister were far away launching their own interesting careers. Kyle was spending Christmas Day at a crime scene, and I was heartsick.

Curtis

We followed the police officer deeper into the ruins. The clinic had been a two-story wood frame house that I repurposed in 1973 as the first legal abortion facility in the Southwest. The administrative office was an addition, separated by a solid wall of concrete block, which had served as a firewall. Without it, the entire building would have been consumed.

We entered the clinic through what had been the back door, now broken down by the firefighters. The guard gave us flashlights, and their beams guided us through an eerie landscape of familiar rooms and furniture. Water was puddled on the linoleum floor of the surgery and lab rooms. As we picked our way into the recovery room with its carpeted floor and wrap around sofa to signal patients that they were back to everyday life, the carpeting squished underfoot. As we walked the hall to the waiting room, furnished like a living room in an inviting home, patches of wall were smudged with soot that had been carried from the back office through the shared ventilation system. Up the spiral stairs to the second floor's more private counseling areas, it was even worse. In addition to the water damage and grayed walls, an indefinable stench-burned plastics, wood, composite shingles-permeated the place: the smell of destruction.

Although the Dallas Fire Department had saved the clinic, we were shaken and heartsick that our son had just spent Christmas Day at a crime scene. Kyle, who had long known and supported our work, felt worried for us in ways he'd never expressed. I had performed my first abortion in the year Kyle was born. As we stood in the parking lot at dusk, breathing fresh air in gulps, he said, "Do you have to keep doing this work?"

We were both silent for long moments before I simply said, "No. We choose to."

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

PART I - OUR LIVES
CHAPTER 1 - A GIRL NAMED SALLIE: FINDING MYSELF, FINDING MY CALLING
CHAPTER 2 - ALONE IN THE DARK: THE EDUCATION OF AN ABORTIONIST
CHAPTER 3 - DO GOOD WORK: MY NOT-QUITE-ACCIDENTAL CAREER
CHAPTER 4 - AN UNEXPECTED LOVE STORY: CREATING OUR WORLD AND OUR WORKPLACE

PART II - OUR WORK
CHAPTER 5 - OUT OF THE DARK: NEW TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES
CHAPTER 6 - PRECIOUS, GLOWING THINGS: ATTENDING TO OUR FEELINGS
CHAPTER 7 - TUMULTUOUS TIMES: LIVING WITH WHAT WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND
CHAPTER 8 - NO TIME TO ABANDON OUR CAUSE: THE DECADES OF VIOLENCE

PART III - OUR PHILOSOPHY
CHAPTER 9 - STORIES: LEARNING FROM OUR PATIENTS
CHAPTER 10 - BLESSINGS: FAITH, ACCEPTANCE, AND TERMINAL UNCERTAINTY

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/22/2024

Married couple Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd (Dancing in Limbo) chronicle their decades-long careers offering abortion care in this fascinating joint memoir. Boyd was a small-town doctor in 1960s East Texas when he began performing illegal abortions for desperate patients in defiance of his strict Christian upbringing; Halvorson-Boyd, meanwhile, was studying psychology and participating in the budding women’s movement. The pair met shortly after Roe v. Wade, when Halvorson-Boyd worked as a surgical assistant at Boyd’s Dallas clinic, and they quickly bonded over their shared dedication to women’s health (“I am not pro-abortion,” Boyd writes, “I am pro-woman”). In alternating first-person sections, the couple traces key moments in their personal and professional lives, including their 1973 establishment of the first legal abortion facility in the American Southwest and the 2009 murder of their colleague, George Tiller, who pioneered late-term abortions. The most stirring sections focus on the women they’ve treated, including a 14-year-old pressured by her mother into seeking an abortion, which the couple refused to perform. With empathy and urgency to spare—the consequences of Roe v. Wade’s 2022 overturning (“This feels like a death,” Halvorson-Boyd recalls saying when the decision came through) are implicit on every page—this offers an invaluably intimate glimpse at a delicate subject. It’s a must-read. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Some books stay with you long after the last page; this is one. Having already dedicated their lives and careers to the cause of reproductive freedom, Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd have given the world yet another gift with this profoundly moving and beautifully written memoir. We Choose To is a story of love, shared humanity, and the power of choosing to stare injustice in the face and do something about it.”
—Cecile Richards, former President of Planned Parenthood and New York Times bestselling author of Make Trouble

"With empathy and urgency to spare . . . this book offers an invaluably intimate glimpse at a delicate subject. It’s a must-read."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[The authors'] commitment to women’s health, freedom and choice is unshakeable, and together, they created a holistic practice based on trust, wellness and empowerment."
—Ms. Magazine

"This intimate and moving account of the reality of abortion care tells a unique story. The authors poetically describe the love and compassion—for their patients, for their staff, and for each other—that drives their work and also grapple with the grim reality for their family of choosing this line of work, as the danger and violence of anti-abortion activists is ever present. Their humility and dedication provide a model that should guide the next generation of abortion providers and advocates."
—Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights

“This memoir from two of the National Abortion Federation’s founding members provides a valuable history of abortion provision in freestanding clinics and the pioneering development of abortion counseling amid the backdrop of our country’s changing legal landscape. Writing alternating chapters, Curtis and Glenna share the philosophy and rituals they used to establish a patient-centered way of providing abortion care. This book offers an accessible and engaging education about the evolution of in-clinic abortion care in the United States and reads as a love letter to the thousands of patients who taught the authors and their staff so much along the way.”
—Melissa Fowler, Chief Program Officer, National Abortion Federation (NAF)

"We Choose To is a must-read for anyone curious about the ways that faith impacts abortion care. The memoir reminds readers that religious belief compels many of the physicians, nurses, doulas, counselors, and administrative staff who kept clinics running before, during, and after Roe. The book shows how Dr. Curtis Boyd, a former preacher ‘raised on black-eyed peas, corn pone, and Bible verses,’ found a new ministry providing abortions. Together, Dr. Boyd and Dr. Halvorson-Boyd share the profoundly moving work of providing lifesaving healthcare in the Deep South.”
—Jamie L. Manson, M.Div., President of Catholics for Choice

“We Choose To shows us that abortion care is freedom and love, and that abortion providers are compassionate frontline heroes working in a terrain that is increasingly hostile for providers, patients, and their loved ones. What a wonderful reminder that this battle for reproductive freedom and justice did not begin and end with the fall of Roe v. Wade!”
—Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO, National Women's Law Center

"A thoughtful reckoning with the recent history of abortion in the United States."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd have committed their lives to a shared cause: helping women end the pregnancies they wish to end. But if that commitment made them leaders of the pro-choice movement, this book is no screed. It is an honest look at their difficult work, and it shies away from nothing.”
—Joshua Prager, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Family Roe: An American Story

"We Choose To is the most satisfying love story I’ve ever read. The Boyds invite the reader into intimate conversation about the spiritual joy of devoting one’s life to service, the intellectual passion of creating new medical procedures and counseling approaches, the healthy self-love fueling the choices of both abortion patients and providers, and the way two fiercely independent people can function as soulmates. An essential 'behind the scenes' history of US abortion care from its pioneers, and a manual for how people working for social justice in hard times might sustain themselves and each other."
—Katie Watson, Associate Professor, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and author of Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion

“Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd have each played hugely significant roles in the evolution of abortion care in the United States. Their contributions include both key medical improvements in abortion methods and new approaches to abortion counseling, as well as to the often-overlooked issue of staff care. In this beautifully written memoir, the reader is introduced to both the challenges and gratifications of a lifetime spent doing this essential work. A bonus feature is the book’s moving portrayal of a loving marriage that is able to withstand the stresses of its partners’ involvement in the most contentious issue in American politics.”
—Carole Joffe, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California San Francisco and coauthor of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America

"Boyd and Halvorson-Boyd’s unshakeable commitment makes the book vital reading for our shaky times."
—Santa Fe Reporter

"We Choose To illustrates what anti-abortion activists try to deny: that abortion care can be tender and restore women’s sense of self. It is a rare historical document about an often hidden medical practice that demonstrates why access to compassionate abortion services is so crucial to women’s health and lives."
—Johanna Schoen, Professor of History, Rutgers University and author of Abortion After Roe

“Curtis and Glenna Boyd are heroes of the abortion movement. They have helped many thousands of women with exceptional care. They inspired and taught generations of abortion providers with their unique, courageous, and profoundly empathic practice in the face of unrelenting harassment and political interference.”
—Philip Darney, MD and Uta Landy, PhD, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, University of California San Francisco

From the Publisher