The A Word is aptly named. I’m always struck by how, even in Canada, people still feel compelled to whisper when they talk about abortion. It’s a legal medical procedure—we don’t whisper about appendectomies, heart surgery, or root canals. And yet abortion continues to carry, for many, a faint air of impropriety.

I shouldn’t be surprised. In television and film, when a character with no plans for children becomes pregnant, the script rarely includes abortion. Instead, she either miscarries conveniently or turns her life upside down to give birth and, somehow, happily raise a child. Abortion is seldom even mentioned.

Access to abortion remains precarious in much of the world. Even in countries like Canada, where abortion is not a criminal act, access is limited for those outside major urban centres, for young or poor women, and for those in conservative or patriarchal families and communities. In many other countries—including our immediate neighbour to the south—having or performing an abortion can lead to criminal charges and real jail time.

The A Word, a graphic essay originally published in Spanish, is a stark reminder of this reality. It also pays powerful tribute to the courageous women (and men) who have fought, and continue to fight, for free and legal access to abortion worldwide.

I was 18 when I became pregnant. At the time, abortion in Canada was only legally available when a committee of—mostly male—doctors agreed that continuing the pregnancy posed a serious risk to the mother’s health or life. That was not my situation.

My daughter and I had the supports afforded by middle-class privilege, so our story was, and remains, a happy one. But the early months of my pregnancy were terrifying and isolating, as I hastily rewrote my life plan to include marriage and a child at a very young age.

As the book bluntly states: “Rich women don’t have abortions, they go on vacation. Poor women don’t have abortions, they die.” Many women facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy are not as fortunate as I was.

The A Word reminds us of the desperate measures millions of women are still forced to take when legal abortion is out of reach: 45 percent of abortions worldwide are unsafe; 40 percent of women who suffer complications receive no medical treatment; and 13 percent of maternal deaths are the direct result of unsafe abortions.

The book also offers valuable context. It explains the language surrounding abortion, traces the history of herbal methods women have used across centuries to end pregnancies, and even includes an illustrated guide to the stages of pregnancy.

Over time, women’s reproductive health—pregnancy, contraception, and abortion—shifted from being a private matter to one of public policy. Women gradually lost control of our own bodies as the state and organized religion claimed the authority to decide who should reproduce and when.

The book is full of striking facts. Did you know India was the first country to offer paid leave for women who miscarry at any stage of pregnancy? Or that in 1971, one million French women underwent clandestine abortions? Or that the only time in history the Canadian House of Commons was shut down was in 1970, when members of the Abortion Caravan chained themselves to seats in the visitors’ gallery and demanded a review of the country’s abortion laws?

The authors also provide a close look at abortion in Canada and the United States. I learned, for instance, that Dr. Morton Shulman, Ontario’s chief coroner in the 1960s, advocated loosening abortion laws after witnessing the deaths of countless young women from illegal procedures.

After decades of activism, including the courageous work of Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country’s abortion law in 1988, declaring it unconstitutional. The following year, when Chantal Daigle’s former partner obtained a court order to prevent her from having an abortion, the Supreme Court ruled again, this time confirming that no man has the legal right to veto a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy.

Whether you are a seasoned pro-choice activist, like me, or young enough to assume abortion access is a given, The A Word has something to offer you. Women’s right to control our own bodies is not a battle that can be checked off as won. The more we understand why, the better prepared we are to keep fighting.

As the book reminds us, abortion is “a song without end.”

Pamela Cross is a feminist lawyer and author of And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence (Between the Lines, 2024).