This is the enthralling story, written by a master journalist and the award-winning author of Asbestos House, of how abortion became legal in Australia.
It begins with the many young women who found their way to a motley crew of doctors prepared to perform terminations, and it tells what happened when the law was forced to act against them.
Haigh's tale has an intriguing cast of characters: homicide detectives, crusading medicos, cunning lawyers, evasive politicians, socialites, feminists, activists and more. At the centre of the story is the Menhennitt case, in which Justice Menhennitt - an unlikely judge for Australia's Roe vs Wade - produced the ruling that changed legal history and the lives of innumerable women.
A remarkable piece of detective work, The Unspeakable Crime lifts the lid on a dramatic and almost forgotten episode in Australian life.
