Right to Life was published by Gauntlet Press in 1998 as a limited-edition novella. Sara Foster is kidnapped by Stephen Teach, an anti-abortion activist who has decided to take his beliefs to their logical conclusion: he will imprison a woman, impregnate her, and force her to carry the child to term. The “right to life” of the title is his justification — the unborn child’s right supersedes the mother’s freedom.
Ketchum presents Teach not as a caricature but as a man whose beliefs are internally consistent: if abortion is murder, then preventing it by any means is justified, including kidnapping and rape. The horror of the novella lies not in its violence (which is brutal but measured) but in the recognition that Teach’s logic, however monstrous its conclusion, begins from premises that millions of Americans share.
The novella is short — barely 100 pages — and Ketchum uses the compression to devastating effect. There is no padding, no digression, no escape for the reader from the claustrophobic intensity of Sara’s captivity.
Collecting Right to Life
First edition (Gauntlet Press, 1998): Limited hardcover edition.
Market values:
- Signed limited edition, fine: $40–$100
- Trade edition: $15–$30