Beyond Limits
Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care
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Beyond Limits
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Narrated by:
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Samara Naeymi
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By:
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Shelley Sella
About this listen
"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
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 listeners 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.
©2025 Shelley Sella (P)2025 Beacon Press AudioCritic reviews
“Sella does a stellar job of straightforwardly and compassionately explaining why third-trimester abortions happen . . . This bursts with insight.”—Publishers Weekly
“Beyond Limits is an important addition to the literature on abortion and reproductive justice. Interweaving the real stories of the people whose abortions she performed with her own personal history, Shelley Sella has written a narrative that is emotionally powerful, intimate, and engaging.”—Laura Kaplan, author of The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service
“In Beyond Limits, Dr. Shelley Sella gives an intimate and unflinching look into her life as a third-trimester abortion provider for two decades—from her own experiences leading her to become a staunch defender of bodily autonomy for all to her vision for abortion care in this country. Grounded in the experiences of third-trimester abortion patients, Beyond Limits is a steadfast account of a week at a later abortion clinic and a clear-throated argument for why it is key to ensuring reproductive justice for us all. Dr. Sella’s care and patience shines through the recounting of her own life and the stories of all who entered her exam rooms. People who have and provide later abortion procedures are some of the most misunderstood and lied-about people in the abortion conversation, but Beyond Limits provides a precise and prophetic argument for why we must all shift our understanding about later abortion—and show up for those who need care with the patience and love Dr. Sella leads with.”—Renee Bracey Sherman, founder of We Testify and coauthor of Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve