India, Sept. 6 -- When Gloria Steinem arrived in India in 1957, she was not yet the feminist organiser who would help transform American public life. She was 22, had recently graduated from Smith College, and was uncertain about the future awaiting her at home.

Her journey was partly an escape. Steinem was engaged to Blair Chotzinoff, a pilot from a prominent New York family, but recoiled from a marriage that she feared would close down rather than enlarge her life. While waiting in London for an Indian visa, she discovered that she was pregnant and obtained an illegal abortion. The experience would later inform one of her most enduring political convictions: Without control over reproduction, women could not exercise meaningful control ...