I watched the film version of this recently and it was a shocking and upsetting. I’d heard Annie Ernaux’ name but hadn’t read her books, but after watching the film I set out to. Floored.

In less than a hundred pages, Ernaux shook me to the core. She recounts needing an abortion in 1960’s France, where it was illegal. This was published in 2000, when it felt like ancient history.

This wasn’t written to be a cautionary tale:

The fact that my personal experience of abortion, i.e. clandestinity, is a thing of the past does not seem a good enough reason to dismiss it. Paradoxically, when a new law abolishing discrimination is passed, former victims tend to remain silent on the grounds that “now it’s all over.” So what went on is surrounded by the same veil of secrecy as before.

Today abortion is no longer outlawed and this is precisely why I can afford to steer clear of the social views and inevitably stark formulas of the rebel Seventies-“abuse against women” —and face the reality of this unforgettable event.

On the very next page, we get the text of the law of the time, that could be a copy and paste of actual or proposed law in several US States:

The following persons shall be liable to both a fine and a term of imprisonment: 1) those responsible for performing abortive pratices; 2) those physicians, midwives, pharmacists and other individuals guilty of suggesting or encouraging such practices; 3) those women who have aborted at their own hands or at the hands of others; 4) those guilty of instigating abortion and spreading propaganda advocating contraception. The guilty parties may also receive an injunction requesting that they leave the country. Moreover, those belonging to the second category will be deprived of the right to exercise their profession either temporarily or definitively.

So with that, we can read this as a more urgent and relevant book than something like The Handmaid’s Tale or Prophet Song. The story of young Annie could be copied and pasted to young women in at least 14 states as of this writing (NYT gift link). This should be required reading for anyone involved in the debate, anyone who thinks that an abortion ban will do anything except kill women:

The previous year, a young divorcee had told me that a doctor from Strasbourg had rid her of a child, sparing me the details except, “it was so painful I was clinging to the washbowl.” I too was prepared to cling to the washbowl. Little did I know it could cost me my life.

This book is upsetting and harrowing. It’s crushing to imagine that Ernaux felt at times that this book would be uninteresting because society had advanced beyond this barbarism. It’s absolutely essential reading. I’ll never forget it.