Book Review of "Without Exception: Reclaiming Abortion, Personhood, and Freedom," written by Pam Houston by Claire Wilcox

In her new book, Without Exception: Reclaiming Abortion, Personhood, and Freedom, Pam Houston shows us, in the same clear, lyrical, and courageous voice that Houston fans know and love, what’s at stake here, for all of us. It’s a call to action, and a book that is impossible to put down once started. In the United States, women’s rights are back on the chopping block after almost half a century of reprieve. If you are at all on the fence about who to vote for in this upcoming election, or how to vote on abortion-related local legislation, buy this book now, and read it before you do.

As advertised by its title, this book is, indeed, about abortion. It chronicles the history and politics of the pro-choice and pro-life movements and gives a vivid overview of how the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago has impacted Americans. Houston pulls no punches as she describes the devastation since the Dobbs ruling in 2022. Early in the book, Houston says, “Now that Roe has been overturned there are many states in which the following horrors are currently taking place: a pre-teen girl who has been raped by her step-father can be sent home to carry her pregnancy to term by a medical professional who is afraid of being sentenced to prison. A woman who is diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy can be delayed treatment until she is septic and in grave danger of death…A good Samaritan who has agreed to drive a woman across a state line to receive better medical care can be sentenced to up to ninety-nine years in prison” (Houston, 6-7). These words punched me in the gut. Somehow, as a resident of a state where abortion was still legal, I had missed how bad it had gotten. I read on, while Houston presented shocking fact after shocking fact, along with a slew of heart-wrenching personal stories, and deeply moving quotes from experts in legal, journalistic, and medical realms. Thanks to her book, I now realize the seriousness of the situation—the horror of it—especially for women with fewer financial or social resources and women in rural areas.

Houston also weaves in a series of moving, deeply personal, and unflinchingly honest stories which, together, illustrate how great a life of non-motherhood can be, for a woman. Houston—childless at age 61—invites us to join her on a journey through her childhood and adult life. Sexually abused by her father, repeatedly, and neglected by her mother, Houston’s upbringing was far from ideal. But Houston hasn’t let the abuse hold her back. “I am as proud of my survival in the face of that torture as anything I have ever done or become. I got stronger and stronger, survived those years, and made a life I love, a life of true empowerment and a life of working to empower others” (Houston, 93).  Rather, she sees her childhood as an important precursor for the rich and full life she’s lived so far, one she’s embraced with both arms, with heart, passion, love of nature, and adventure. “Ever since the day I set myself free from my father’s house, I have loved my life fiercely just the way it is. It is perhaps because of that ecstatic sense of freedom that I have never believed the people who told me I needed a child to feel fulfilled” (Houston, 28). Even her mother’s poor parenting helped her make better choices for herself.  “What [my mother] gave up was her freedom [in having a child] which I see now is everything, and the thing I have refused to give up, again and again and again.” (Houston, 15). Today, Houston couldn’t be happier that she never ended up having a child because it’s given her decades of gorgeous freedom, and she tells us all about it. Freedom is, rightfully, one of her core values. It is for me, too.

As if that weren’t enough, in this sweeping book Houston also manages to stir in other essential topics such as our inherent rights to gender fluidity, climate change, political polarization, colonization, white privilege, our debts to the natural world, and more. She even takes us to Calaveras Big Trees State Park, in California. She tells us the metaphorical story of a redwood tree carcass there, called Mother of the Forest “who was named for her extreme beauty and her extreme size and Amazon of a tree standing above so many Amazons” and who “in 1854…was stripped of her bark and…the naked tree was left to die which she began to do almost immediately because she was mortally wounded and…more than a century later she still stands in that grove gutted hollowed out ghost like…reminding us whatever safety we thought we had was always only an illusion” (66-67). These words brought tears to my eyes: we humans have such a capacity for cruelty, and if we don’t stay on our toes, we are all at risk of losing our sovereignty.

Now, to the personal. Houston’s writing never fails to teach me about myself. When she writes about her own experiences, I often feel seen in a way that no other writer has quite yet accomplished. She shines a light on preconscious feelings and thoughts by verbalizing them, for me. She continues to work this particular magic in Without Exception, too. I will share a couple of snippets that both made me laugh and resonated deeply. First, at one point she says that she spent all her time “outside getting dirtier by the minute…rolled around with dogs…never played with an Easy-Bake Oven or a princess cape and ballet shoes…and refused to wear lipstick….” (Houston, 19), which pretty much describes me to a tee. She also admits, “I like animals more than people, puppies more than babies, foals more than babies, even kittens more than babies and I’m honestly not all that crazy about cats (Houston, 28).” I, a childless proud mother of three fur-babies, feel the same, except for the cat bit. I do love a cat almost as much as a dog.

Part of what I love about her writing is that sometimes I wish I had had her life, instead of my own, living courageously, like her, doing less of what others wanted me to do, and paying more attention to what mattered to me. Had I done so, like Houston, I would have probably started writing earlier, gotten honesty and integrity at a younger age, embraced the natural world with more gusto, moved to the mountains sooner, and amassed some farm animals. But I’m sure that Houston wouldn’t want me, or any one of her readers, to linger in regrets like these too long. “Feminism is every woman’s right to her own story.” (Houston, 65), she says. I’m sure she’d want me, and any of us women, to look forward, and choose the next best path for us, leaving her inspiring model life in the dust, if necessary.

In sum, read this book. If you do, I hope you’ll get personally transformed, like I always do, by reading her work. I also hope that you, like me, will find it impossible to stand still on the topic of women’s rights any longer. Consider the expert from Houston’s book below. “For the first summer in more than a decade because of an unusually wet spring, no fires threatened the ranch [where she’s lived for several decades at 9000 feet in Colorado], and this storm will certainly seal the deal. We had a variety and abundance of wildflowers-flax, bluebells, lupine, penstemon, fleabane, columbine, and every color of paintbrush – in the high country we hadn’t seen in decades and the tiny seasonal creek the dogs like to drink out of when we go for our pasture walk thinned in late summer but for the first time in years in never failed… the bad thing doesn’t always have to happen. What this reminds me is that we are not dead in the water, until we decide we are.” (Houston, 156). 

We are not dead in the water….yet, so let’s make sure we create the world we want to live in instead of one that is imposed on us.

Houston, Pam. Without Exception: Reclaiming Abortion, Personhood and Freedom. 2024. Torrey House Press. Salt Lake City, Utah.