The Audacity of Inez Burns

By: Stephen G. Bloom

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Inez Burns was adored by the desperate women who sought her out - and loathed by the power-hungry men who plotted to destroy her.

During a time when women risked their lives with predatory practitioners lurking in back alleys, Inez and her team of women, clad in crisp, white nurse's uniforms, worked night and day in her elegantly appointed clinic, performing 50,000 of the safest, most hygienic abortions available during a time when even the richest wives, Hollywood stars, and mistresses had few options when they found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy.

In The Audacity of Inez Burns, Stephen G. Bloom reveals a jagged slice of lost American history. From Inez's riveting tale of glamour and tragedy, he has created a brilliant, compulsively listenable portrait of an unforgettable woman during a moment when America's pendulum swung from compassion to criminality by punishing those who permitted women to control their own destinies.

©2018 Stephen G. Bloom (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

More a political history of San Francisco

The story was interesting enough to hold my attention. I felt like it was a story of half Inez’s life and half how the city of San Francisco was built and evolved politically, especially as it relates to Edmund Pat Brown.

Review Audacity of Inez Burns

The tone if the narrator was mostly effective; however after a few chapters the tone became irritatingly unchanging. I couldn’t keep up with all the names, nor did I care, of so many characters involved in the story. This being said, the story of the playing field of my San Francisco, in the first half of the 20th Century, was powerfully presented in this audible version.

Jews played a big part in abortion on demand

Never heard of this woman. Book hard to follow. But NYC Jews invented legal abortion and 30,000 million aborted black babies to show for it only 50 years later. What’s not to love.

Good book, narration sometimes irritating

The book was a fascinating and complex history both of one woman who offered abortion care and of the history of San Francisco itself. The audible narration was a bit irritating to me, with a unnecessarily snide tone maintained throughout the book until the last few chapters. The book is a well-written overview of the struggles for women’s reproductive rights and of a beautiful but sometimes troubled city

Not an easy listen

I couldn't wait for this book to end.
It was horrible to listen to.
Yet, it was informative. I had no idea 1 person did 50,000 abortions in a year. I had no idea this would make her filthy rich.
Not 1 single story on any emotional reaction from women getting abortions. Odd. But... several stories as to how the development of a part of land would cause an increase in sexual acts and a need for abortions.

50,000 in one year by 1 person. I am still trying to take that in.

This story gave this woman glory no matter what she did. Thats a bit wrong. I don't mean the abortions, but the rest of her non lawful acts.