Reading Sarah Ruden’s Reproductive Wrongs, one might think that any ill that has befallen womankind since at least antiquity is due to either Christian or conservative men. Each chapter reflects this sentiment. Despite Ruden’s surveying a wide range of authors — from Ovid and Augustine to Charles Dickens and a modern-day abortion survivor — her work is not really a “history.” Reproductive Wrongs is a furious screed that gives the distinct impression of a toddler’s temper tantrum.
Ruden’s name may sound familiar to conservatives: She’s fairly well known in the world of classics, as she has translated a number of essential Greek and Roman works. She has also translated the Christian Gospels — though, because some of her interpretations of Scripture in this book are faulty (specifically, that of 2 Timothy 3:6), I’d approach her previous scriptural translations with care. By Ruden’s own account, Reproductive Wrongs was partially inspired by her experience of speaking at various churches or Christian institutions. She notes with surprise their willingness to debate many topics except the morality or legality of abortion. She attributes this, as she does almost everything in this book, to an obsession with political power and control over female bodies rather than, say, a conviction that dismembering a living member of the human species constitutes murder. History might be kinder to those of us who err on the side of caution, though perhaps not if Ruden is the one translating it.
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