‘Get Out of My Crotch’ tells it like it is

By Kathryn Reed

Disturbing. Enlightening. Thought provoking. Gripping. Gritty. Sad. Troubling.

Those are some of the words that come to mind when describing “Get Out of My Crotch”, a book published by Cherry Bomb Books, an imprint of Bona Fide Books in Meyers.

It’s one of those books that can’t be read all at once. It’s too powerful and disturbing. There’s too much to think about and process.

It’s one of those books that probably won’t be read by the people who should and need to read it. They would be all the politicians who want to regulate women’s reproductive rights.

“Crotch” is a collection of 21 essays from 20 women and one man about life today in the United States when it comes to women’s reproductive issues.

If you think all women have access to safe abortions because of Roe v. Wade, well, you clearly don’t pay attention to the news.

We have politicians who think a woman who is raped has the power to control whether she gets pregnant. We have politicians who think there is never a valid reason for an abortion. Why they even think the government should have a say in what a woman chooses to do is mindboggling.

But “Crotch” isn’t a book about abortion, though it starts out that way. (Just keep reading the book.)

The stories are not unique. That is largely what is so sad about them. If they were isolated cases, the book probably wouldn’t have been published. It’s because these stories are the same stories your sisters, your friends, and your neighbors’ could tell you, but probably choose not to, that the words are so powerful. If you can’t hear it from them, maybe you can read what a stranger has to say.

These are stories involving discrimination, access to birth control, how race plays a part in how people are treated, what Congress is trying to do and has done. They are stories about women wanting to decide what’s right for them without interference from others.

It’s a book I sent to my two nieces earlier this year when they were 17 and 24. It’s a book that people need to read. It’s also a book you won’t want to read.