I wish I could rate this book 6 out of 5 stars. Reading You or Someone You Love by Hannah Matthews felt like being held—gently, fiercely, with steady hands that have done this before. With the poetic clarity of someone who has sat beside grief, relief, and everything in between, Matthews offers a vision of abortion care rooted in tenderness, not terror. This is a book that breathes: lyrical and grounded, intimate and expansive, every page pulsing with care.

Matthews writes like a doula speaks—present, precise, and deeply attuned to the body and its wisdom. Her reflections span clinic rooms, herbal lineages, and history’s silenced corners, insisting that abortion is not a monolith but a deeply human experience, shaped by culture, context, and consent. She invites readers to see abortion not as surgery or sin, but as a sacred choice—a choice that can protect, liberate, and honor life in all its forms.

She offers both the visceral and the practical: rituals of aftercare, digital safety tips, pain management options, and reflections on the intersection of abortion with queerness, disability, and systemic violence. Matthews traces abortion’s Indigenous and communal roots, names the harm caused by medical and legal gatekeeping, and insists that “pro-life” is a misnomer for the anti-abortion agenda. Through it all, she returns again and again to the truth that abortion creates futures—and that those who seek them are the only experts of their own stories.

This book doesn’t sensationalize abortion. It reveres it. It demands we move past judgment and into justice. Whether you’ve had an abortion, love someone who has, or want to better understand the fullness of reproductive care, this book is a balm, a blueprint, and a battle cry. Matthews doesn’t just tell us abortion is ordinary—she shows us that it can also be sacred. Thank you, Hannah. We love you.

📖 Read this if you love: tender political writing, abolitionist reproductive justice frameworks, or someone who has had an abortion.

🔑 Key Themes: Bodily Autonomy and Consent, Abortion as Community Care, Queerness and Reproductive Justice, Disability Justice and Harm Reduction, Medical Surveillance and Anti-Carceral Ethics.