God help me, we are women, and this whole cursed abortion thing is a part of the
war on women. Do you understand? Try to understand, because I need you. We have to do it together, women and men, and it's a long road to go."

–  Abigail Goodman
    from the conclusion of Howard Fast's
    The Trial of Abigail Goodman


But I want to point out that the first step, in my view, is that Roe v.  Wade be overturned...I am fighting for an overturning of Roe v.  Wade.


–    Mitt Romey on the Dec. 16, 2007
      edition of Meet the Press


A couple of Sundays ago, I was laying in bed, still half-asleep as I watched Meet the Press.  Mitt Romney was the big guest for the hour and the interview was pretty run-of-the mill and boring until Russert brought up the topic of abortion.  Romney, who was unabashedly pro-choice until recently, struggled to in vain to explain the sense behind his major about-face on the matter.  Even after Russert aired an old video clip of Romney pledging, "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard," Romney continued to attempt to present his current political line as being largely unchanged from previous periods.  Ultimately, Romney told Russert that it was, in his mind, of the utmost importance that Roe v. Wade be overturned as the first means of banning abortion in the US.  With that, Romney fell right into line with the other right-wing zealots of his party. (Read the full transcript here)  It's not that this is that much of a surprise to me, but sometimes it takes something like this to really impress me as to how much trouble we're really in these days.
book cover
Romney's comments about Roe reminded me at once of the novel The Trial of Abigail Goodman by the great novelist Howard Fast.  I picked up a cheap copy of the book at an estate sale a few years back, buying it not so much for its content but because I recognized Fast's name from previously reading his work on Josip Tito and also from reading pieces of Fast's own autobiography, Being Red.  I read the dust jacket of Abigail Goodman on the way home the day that I had purchased it and the plot was rather intriguing as it was a fictionalized account of what might follow if abortion was banned in the United States.  In the book, 41 year-old Abigail Goodman, college professor and mother of two grown children, is put on trial in a small southern town after it is learned that she had an abortion.  Regrettably, at the time that I purchased it, Abigail Goodman became so much like many other books that I have acquired in recent years.  It is certainly a cliche to say this, but as the saying goes, "So many books, so little time..."

Seeing the Romney interview again piqued my curiosity regarding the Fast novel and thankfully, my home library is not in too much disarray, so I was able to locate the book quickly.  Abigail Goodman is a short book and something of a fast read.  It only took me a few evenings and afternoons to polish it off.  Now, I don't read a lot of novels and I really hesitate to put too much stock into a fictionalized "what if" tale, but Fast's work on Abigail Goodman is very good at a number of levels.  Of particular importance is Fast's portrayal of American attitudes towards abortion as having specific class distinctions that are, in real life, both painfully apparent and seldom discussed.  Moreover, Fast had the foresight to publish Abigail Goodman in 1993 – the early years of the Clinton Administration – at a time in which most dyed-in-the wool American liberals were content to rest on their collective laurels in the belief that our civil liberties would be secure for the foreseeable future.  (As if the Democratic Party's neoliberals won't compromise the reproductive rights of women for political gain if it means winning a dogfight with the Republicans...)

Abigail Goodman is, at the very least, a great piece of literature by a wonderful author.  In many respects, though, it is a warning to Americans at what we face from the Romney, Huckabee and many others like them.  It is certainly a "must-read" for a time in which our civil liberties – and our common sense – are slowly slipping away amidst very little fanfare.

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

–    Sinclar Lewis

For more information on Howard Fast, check out Steve Trussel's great archive of Fast-related materials at EclectiCity.com.
Recommended Reading
Women, Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis