The second edition of “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” published in 1976 by Simon & Schuster, featured on Page 229 something I’d never seen before, and I don’t believe I’ve seen it anywhere else since: a photograph of a woman having an abortion.

The caption, like the inclusion of the photograph itself, is matter-of-fact, informative and free from sentiment: “Vacuum suction abortion at Preterm Institute in Washington, D.C. Note that the woman getting the abortion is wearing her street clothing.”

I first came across this photo several years ago, while doing research on radical feminist groups. Even in that context, it was arresting, perhaps because it was presented without fanfare. There was no sense that showing a woman having an abortion was, for a text on women’s health, anything other than par for the course. When I learned recently that “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” now in its ninth edition, would no longer be updated after September, I thought immediately of this image — and of the fact that it was not, after all, par for the course for any book.

Image “Women and Their Bodies” (1970) was stapled pages, distributed by hand. Credit... Our Bodies, Ourselves

“Our Bodies, Ourselves” was originally a booklet titled “Women and Their Bodies: A Course,” self-published in 1970 by the Boston Women’s Health Collective. The collective had grown out of a sexual health workshop at a women’s liberation conference, and the booklet the members published was forthright and frankly political.