Event Description
PSB: Boston Edition is excited to welcome Dr. Shelley Sella to celebrate the release of her new book, Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care. Rebecca Traister will join Dr. Sella in conversation.
ABOUT BEYOND LIMITS: STORIES OF THIRD-TRIMESTER ABORTION CARE
A compassionate perspective on late-term abortion that challenges preconceived 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.
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, beyond limits to provide 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.
PRAISE FOR BEYOND LIMITS: STORIES OF THIRD-TRIMESTER ABORTION CARE
"Beyond Limits is moving, personal, insightful, and powerfully written. This book helps us to see people who seek abortions with clarity and compassion, as people in the real world, rather than as the objects of an abstract moral or political debate."—Diana Greene Foster, author of The Turnaway Study
“Sella does a stellar job of straightforwardly and compassionately explaining why third-trimester abortions happen . . . This bursts with insight.”
—Publishers Weekly
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Shelley Sella is a board-certified OB-GYN and the first woman to openly practice third-trimester abortion care in the US, which she did for 20 years. She was prominently featured in the Emmy Award–winning documentary After Tiller. Dr. Sella served two terms on the board of the National Abortion Federation and in 2022 was awarded its highest honor, the Christopher Tietze Humanitarian Award. She is retired from clinical practice and now focuses on advocacy.
Rebecca Traister is writer-at-large at New York magazine, where she covers politics, media, and culture from a feminist perspective. Traister has written for The New Republic, Salon, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, The Washington Post, Elle, and other publications. Winner of a 2018 National Magazine Award and 2016 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, Traister is the author of Good and Mad, a New York Times bestseller and among The Washington Post and People’s ten best books of 2018; All the Single Ladies, a New York Times best seller and Notable Book of 2016; and Big Girls Don't Cry, a Times notable book of 2010. She is at work on a new book.
This class will take place in-person at our Center for Creative Writing in Boston's Seaport neighborhood.
Covid-19 Update:
GrubStreet's space will be mask-optional when Boston's Covid-19 Community Level is low or medium. When the Covid-19 Community Level is high, our space will require masks. Please check GrubStreet's Covid-19 page for the latest info on masking and Community Levels before visiting in person.
Space Accessibility:
Our space is ADA accessible with automatic door openers, ADA-compliant restrooms, desk and table spacing, braille signage, and elevator. Our classrooms can be equipped with ALS for hard of hearing individuals. We cannot guarantee a scent-free environment. For more accessibility requests, please contact our Operations team at [email protected] or (617) 695-0075.