by Susan Roberts
Based on the true story of an illegal women’s clinic at the center of a high-profile trial in 1940s Chicago and the nurse who risked her safety and freedom to work there, a thought-provoking, powerfully timely novel of courage, sisterhood, and women’s healthcare.
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| May 2026; Kensington; 978-1496741707 audio, ebook, print (368 pages); historical fiction |
This well-written and well-researched book is about an illegal abortion clinic in Chicago in the 1940s. It’s based on a real clinic of the time, and most of the characters are based on real people. The book is thought-provoking, and even though it’s still a controversial subject, the author does a fantastic job of presenting the truth on both sides of the issue.
Mimi was trained as a nurse and is now the stay-at-home mom of two young children living with her husband and his mother in Chicago. Her husband had been a star baseball player, but an injury ended his career. He keeps hoping for a comeback and refuses to look for any other type of work. She decides that she’ll have to go to work, and even though she has training, hospitals are reluctant to hire married women because, of course, everyone at this time felt that women should stay at home with their families. After no luck finding a job, a friend tells her about a clinic that is hiring. When she finds out that the clinic performs illegal abortions, she doesn’t want to take the job because it goes against her religious beliefs. However, she soon realizes that she needs the job to keep her family from losing their home. As she becomes more involved and gets to know the women who are having abortions, she becomes much more understanding of their plight and their need to end their pregnancies. As the police begin to crack down on illegal clinics, Mimi has to decide if it’s worth risking her family to keep her job and how far she’s willing to go to help women who are desperate for the clinic’s services.
This is a character-driven book, and it was interesting to see the way that Mimi changed throughout the book – from a stay-at-home mom to a woman willing to risk her freedom to help other women. From a woman who felt that she had no choices to a woman who realized that she had the freedom to help other women and that she was stronger than believes herself to be.
The author did an excellent job at presenting both sides of the controversial subject of abortion without coming down strongly on one side or the other. This book is emotional, powerful, and an honest look at an ethical dilemma that still faces many women today. It leaves the reader with a lot to think about on both sides of the abortion issue.
“…we must know our past to fully understand our present, navigate what lies ahead and build a better future.”
Buy When No One Else Will at Amazon
Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west. She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.
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