This book is the fictionalized story of 2 girls (and they were girls) sterilized, without consent, only after being used as human guinea pigs for a birth control drug. Sadly, it is based in truth and happened to tens of thousands more girls/women. The book's main character,
…more Civil, was a nurse in a family planning clinic and she met the girls and their family as part of her job of ensuring they were on birth control, even though they weren't sexually active. She did her best to protect, support and uplift the little girls and their family while learning, sometimes painfully, that she was not the family's decider. There were lots of things I wish the book had included – why did Civil decide to become a physician, what caused her to adopt a child, how did she get her name, what were the aftereffects from the trial, etc. However, knowing, or not knowing, these details did not take away from the primary story. I believe this is an important book because of the subject matter. I am not sure why this isn't as well known as the Tuskegee experiment, but maybe this book will help to change that. It will be a great bookclub choice (I'll be recommending it to mine.) (less)
