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Fifty-One Percent
51%

Kate Schatz on 'Where the Girls Were'

By Jesse King
Published March 12, 2026 at 8:12 PM EDT

On this week’s 51%, we speak with author Kate Schatz about her new novel Where the Girls Were. Loosely based on her mother’s experience, Where the Girls Were tells the story of a bright teenage girl in the late 1960s who finds herself pregnant and is sent away to have the baby in secret and put it up for adoption. Schatz says secret homes for "unwed mothers" were not uncommon in the U.S. before the decision of Roe v. Wade enshrined abortion rights for (almost) the next 50 years. During the “Baby Scoop Era,” millions of unwed young mothers faced societal pressure to relinquish their newborns for adoption.

Guest: Kate Schatz, author of Where the Girls Were

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio based in Albany, New York. Jesse King is our producer and host. Our associate producer is Madeleine Reynolds, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.

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51% womenbookmotherabortion rightssolo mother
Jesse King
Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%," and the station's former Hudson Valley bureau chief. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."
See stories by Jesse King
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