by Shelley Sella, MD, Beacon Press, 2025
This book is a compassionate perspective on late-term abortion, written by a doctor who provided third trimester abortions in the USA for 20 years. It is described as a compassionate perspective on late-term abortion that challenges pre-conceived notions of who gets abortions and why that challenges pre-conceived notions of who gets abortions and why.
Within both the anti-abortion and pro-choice movements, third-trimester abortion is often stigmatized and misunderstood. For 20 years, Dr. Shelley Sella saw patients whose diverse backgrounds and circumstances led them to the same difficult decision: to end their pregnancies. Now, interweaving her own journey as a provider, Dr. Sella invites readers into a typical week at her clinic to demystify the experience. She shares the stories of people like:
-Clarissa, a mother of two whose third suffered a massive stroke in utero with no chance of recovery,
-Mary, a devoted Catholic whose fourth round of IVF offered a late-in-life chance at motherhood, only to be dashed by anomalous test results, and
-Laura, a mother of four already, whose bruised arms tell a painful story, one she couldn’t bring herself to write a fifth child into.
Beyond Limits is not just a testament to a standard of care grounded in competence, compassion, and sensitivity. It is also a call for a paradigm shift that moves beyond Dobbs, beyond Roe, and beyond limits to providing care. And it is a tribute to the real people whose hearts, reasons and stories are more complex than politicized conversations about abortion lead us to believe.
“Profound stories of third-trimester abortion care, told by an ob-gyn hailed as “a hero of the abortion field” (Diana Greene Foster, author of The Turnaway Study)
ISBN: 978-080702059-3 Publication Date:6/3/2025
Price: $27.95 / Format: Cloth / In stock / Also available as an audio book.