About this Event
Please join us for a discussion of Dr. Shelley Sella's essential new book, Beyond Limits: Stories of Third Trimester Abortion Care at Womb House Books. Dr. Sella will be in conversation with professor Diana Greene Foster, followed by Q&A from the audience and book signing.
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 2 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
- Laura, a mother to 4 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, 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.
Shelley Sella, MD 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 2 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.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Womb House Books, Temescal Alley, Oakland, United States
