About This Event:
17TH ANNUAL WOMEN'S WAY BOOK PRIZE: JESSICA VALENTI
This event was held on October 22, 2025.
Tune in for a powerful virtual fireside chat with New York Times best-selling author and activist Jessica Valenti, honoring her groundbreaking book Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win. In conversation with Beulah Osueke, Executive Director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Valenti explored the urgent themes of her work—from the weaponization of language around reproductive rights, to the real dangers of care denial, to the broader fight for bodily autonomy and gender equity.
About Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use To Win
In her most urgent book yet, New York Times bestselling author Jessica Valenti shines a light on the conservative assault on women’s freedom, cutting through the misinformation and overwhelm to inform, engage, and enrage. From the attacks Americans know about to the ones anti-abortion lawmakers and groups are trying to hide, Valenti details the tactics and horrors that she’s been painstakingly tracking in her acclaimed newsletter, Abortion, Every Day. Abortion gives voice to women’s frustration and outrage in a moment when they’re fed up with being talked over and diminished. And in an election year when abortion is dominating the national conversation, Valenti provides the language, facts, and context readers need to feel confident when talking about the attacks on their bodies and freedom. Abortion is a handbook for the overwhelming majority of Americans who support abortion rights, whether they’re seasoned activists or those just starting to learn. With the wit, expertise, and blunt moral clarity that’s made her writing popular for decades, Valenti offers an essential manifesto in an urgent moment.
About Jessica Valenti
Jessica Valenti is a writer, activist, and one of the country’s most influential voices on gender and politics. The award-winning author of eight books—including the New York Times bestseller Abortion—she has shaped the national conversation on feminism for over two decades. Jessica’s groundbreaking anthology Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape helped define the modern definition of consent and paved the way for legislation of the same name. She is also widely credited with sparking feminism’s online wave as the founder of the trailblazing blog Feministing. A former columnist for The Guardian and The Nation, Jessica’s sharp, uncompromising analysis has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and on media outlets from CNN to The Daily Show. She speaks at colleges and organizations nationwide about feminism, abortion, and sexual violence. After the fall of Roe, Jessica founded Abortion, Every Day, an urgent synthesis of anything and everything happening with abortion rights in the United States. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
About Beulah Osueke
Beulah Osueke is a coach, strategist, and organizer. She's the Executive Director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, a movement organization dedicated to building power for and alongside Black women, Black queer folks, and Black marginalized communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In addition to her role at New Voices, Beulah is a leadership member of ReFrame and the Radical Communicators Network, two narrative organizations resourcing social justice communicators across the nation.
About the WOMEN'S WAY Book Prize
The Book Prize honors a woman or gender-expansive author or co-author for advancing the dialogue about issues impacting women, girls, and the gender-expansive community. Established in 2007, this prize honors the legacy of Ernesta Drinker Ballard, a WOMEN’S WAY founder, first president of its Board of Directors, and extraordinary champion for women and girls.
