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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Ethical issues & debates > Abortion
"Abortion 101, an accessible account of abortion practices and ethical issues around the globe, for students, activists, and policymakers"
How can those who seek to protect the "right to life" defend assassination in the name of saving lives? Carol Mason investigates this seeming paradox by examining pro-life literature both archival material and writings from the front lines of the conflict. Her analysis reveals the apocalyptic thread that is the ideological link between established anti-abortion organizations and the more shadowy pro-life terrorists who subject clinic workers to anthrax scares, bombs, and bullets.The portrayal of abortion as "America's Armageddon" began in the 1960s. In the 1970s, Mason says, Christian politics and the post-Vietnam paramilitary culture popularized the idea that legal abortion is a harbinger of apocalypse. By the 1990s, Mason asserts, even the movement's mainstream had taken up the call, narrating abortion as an apocalyptic battle between so-called Christian and anti-Christian forces. "Pro-life violence of the 1990s signaled a move away from protest and toward retribution," she writes. "Pro-life retribution is seen as a way to restore the order of God. In this light, the phenomenon of killing for 'life' is revealed not as an oxymoron, but as a logical consistency and a political manifestation of religious retribution."Mason's scrutiny of primary sources (direct mail, internal memoranda, personal letters, underground manuals, and pro-life films, magazines, and novels) draws attention to elements of pro-life millennialism. Killing for Life is a powerful indictment of pro-life ideology as a coherent, mass-produced narrative that does not merely condone violence, but anticipates it as part of "God's plan."
Articulating Life's Memory offers a unique view of the history of abortion in early America. Nathan Stormer's work moves beyond general histories of medicine, science, and women; it provides specific insight into how the earliest medical writings on abortion served to create cultural memory. Nineteenth-century medical texts presented the act of abortion as a threat to the carefully circumscribed concepts of nation and race. Stormer analyzes a wealth of literature (and illustrations) from the period to explore the rhetorical techniques that led early Americans to presume that abortion put the integrity of all of American culture at risk. The book's first part provides a layered context for understanding medical practices within the rhetoric of memory formation and sets early antiabortion efforts within the wider framework of nineteenth-century biopolitics and racism. In Part II of the study, Stormer examines the substance of the memory constituted by these early medical practices. Making a major contribution to the study of rhetoric, Articulating Life's Memory will be invaluable to scholars researching reproductive rights and feminist and cultural histories of medicine.
This book is meant to provide an overview of and gather the literature on abortion -- one of the most divisive issues of our times. Honest women and men the world over must deal with this issue in their hearts and minds whether or not they ever face the issue personally. It is hard to conceive of a single thinking person who doesn't have an opinion on abortion -- usually strongly held. The arguments are cogent on both sides of the issue. We hope that this collection will bring to the attention of readers the publications which shed light on the fundamental issues involved.
Without a doubt, the sharpest public debates over the value of fetal life have revolved around the conditions, if any, under which abortion should be legal. Yet the question of whether the fetus is or is not a person is central in two other policy domains: substance abuse by pregnant women and assaults on pregnant women, especially assaults that cause the death of a fetus.At first glance, all three issues seem similar all ask the question of how the state should respond to actions that threaten or destroy fetal life. But the response of state and society to each has been very different: while the highly charged debate over abortion rights rages unabated, the other two issues engender no such social or political divisions. And while drug use and third-party fetal killings are universally condemned, "fetal abuse" is a term used only to describe harm that a pregnant woman brings to her own fetus, and not harm brought to it by a third party. Similarly, a great deal of media attention has been paid to such "fetal abuse," while the question of third-party harm has been all but ignored.Is the Fetus a Person? analyzes fetal personhood by examining all of the major areas of the law that could implicitly or explicitly award the fetus such status. Jean Reith Schroedel presents a comprehensive history of fetal protection ideas and policies in America, considering the moral and legal underpinnings of existing laws while paying particular attention to the influence of gender and power relations on their formation. As much a model for future research as a study of the status of the fetus, this book offers an extraordinary examination of one of the most divisive and complex issues of late-twentieth-century American life."
Based on the struggle over a Fargo, North Dakota, abortion clinic, this text explores one of the central social conflicts of the late 20th century. It speaks not simply to the abortion issue but also to the critical role of women's political activism.;A new introduction addresses the events of the 1990s, which saw the emergence of Operation Rescue and a shift toward more violent, even deadly, forms of anti-abortion protest. Responses to this trend included government legislation, a decline in clinics and doctors offering abortion services, and also the formation of Common Ground, an alliance bringing together activists from both sides to address shared concerns. Ginsburg shows that what may have seemed an ephemeral artifact of "Midwestern feminism" of the 1980s actually foreshadowed unprecedented possibilities for reconciliation in one of the most entrenched conflicts of our times.
Twenty million unsafe abortions are performed each year, 90% of which occur in the developing world. In many countries, abortion is still illegal; in others a variety of cultural barriers force women to seek out underground abortions. Even in countries, such as China, where abortion is fully accessible in practice as well as in theory, our understanding of the phenomenon is very partial. In discussing issues that are of the utmost important for understanding abortion, this book furthers our knowledge of this one of the most important elements of reproductive health. The result of a global research project, commissioned by the World Health Organization, the book provides new information on abortion, vital for both policy debate and strategies for intervention. The contributors explain the extent of abortion, why it happens and what happens when it does. A section on women's perspectives explains how women across the world feel when they find they must abort, the processes by which they go about it, how the underground networks operate and the obstacles these women must face. The book addresses providers? views on abortion, highlighting how their personal values and opinions influence the total experience that women undergo. Several contributions discuss the relationship between contraception and abortion while a section on adolescents addresses a newly emerging concern for programme managers around the world. With more information that has ever been previously available, this book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date picture of abortion globally; it also demonstrates that true reproductive freedom comes only with women's empowerment and with an acceptable quality of health care. It will be necessary reading for students and academics of women's studies and population studies, as well as for practitioners in the health sector.
In the past half century, we have moved from criminalization of abortion to legalization, although unequal access to services and violent protests continue to tear American society apart. In this provocative volume, a passionate and diverse group of abortion rights proponents - journalists, scholars, activists, lawyers, physicians, and philosophers - chronicles the evolution of one of the most intensely debated issues of our time. Unique in its attention to so many aspects of the debate, "Abortion Wars" places key issues such as medical practice, activism, legal strategies, and the meaning of choice in the deeply complex historical context of the past half-century. Taking the reader into the trenches of the battle over abortion rights, the contributors zero in on the key moments and turning points of this ongoing war. Rickie Solinger and Laura Kaplan discuss the covert history of abortion before Roe v. Wade, including the activities of the abortion providers called Jane. Faye Ginsburg examines the recent rise of anti-abortion militancy and its ties to the religious right. Jane Hodgson reflects on her career as a physician and abortion practitioner before abortion was legal, and Alison Jaggar explores the changing theoretical underpinnings of abortion rights activism. Other essays stress the need to redefine the reproductive rights movement so that race and class as well as gender considerations are at its core and raise questions regarding abortion rights for poor women and women of color. Taken together, the historical and interdisciplinary perspectives collected here yield a complex picture of what has been at stake in abortion politics during the past fifty years. The essays clarify why so many women consider abortion crucial to their lives and why opposition to abortion rights has become so violent today. The essays illuminate a fundamental lesson about the nature of social change in the United States: that judicial decisions that overturn restrictive laws and establish new rights do not settle social policy and, in fact, are likely to spark severe and long-lasting resistance.
How the deeply divisive abortion controversy has played out on state and national levels during the past two decades provides an illustrative portrait, even if in some ways a disappointing reflection, of the operation of American government and politics. In Abortion and American Politics, Barbara H. Craig and David M. O'Brien tell the story of this explosive social issue, from the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, through the years of grass-roots activism and public debate that led to the de-turning 1989 decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and to the no less controversial 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Against the background of ambiguities of public opinion polls, the authors trace the strategic maneuvering of interest groups in bringing litigation and in pushing for legislation and executive action. And they underscore the prospects for further changes in the national debate over abortion with the Clinton administration's policies and its judicial appointees. Without attempting to resolve the abortion controversy or to advocate one or another position, Craig and O'Brien present a comprehensive analysis of the complex interaction of interest groups, the states, the courts, Congress, and the president and the executive branch. As a case study of institutional conflict over public policy, Abortion and American Politics demonstrates the enduring vitality of the Founders' vision of a system of constitutional politics that allows for incremental change as a means to ensure stability in the face of unyielding social controversy.
'A provocative and important book that every pro-choice advocate should read.' Sinead Kennedy, Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment When it comes to abortion, today's liberal climate has produced a common sense that is both pro-choice and anti-abortion. The public are fed an unchanging version of what the abortion choice entails and how women experience it. While it would prove highly unpopular to insist that all pregnant women should carry their pregnancy to term, the idea that abortion could or should be a happy experience for women is virtually unspeakable. In this careful and intelligent work, Erica Millar shows how the emotions of abortion are constructed in sharp contrast to the emotional position occupied by motherhood - the unassailable placeholder for women's happiness. Through an exposition of the cultural and political forces that continue to influence the decisions women make about their pregnancies - forces that are synonymous with the rhetoric of choice - Millar argues for a radical reinterpretation of women's freedom.
'A provocative and important book that every pro-choice advocate should read.' Sinead Kennedy, Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment When it comes to abortion, today's liberal climate has produced a common sense that is both pro-choice and anti-abortion. The public are fed an unchanging version of what the abortion choice entails and how women experience it. While it would prove highly unpopular to insist that all pregnant women should carry their pregnancy to term, the idea that abortion could or should be a happy experience for women is virtually unspeakable. In this careful and intelligent work, Erica Millar shows how the emotions of abortion are constructed in sharp contrast to the emotional position occupied by motherhood - the unassailable placeholder for women's happiness. Through an exposition of the cultural and political forces that continue to influence the decisions women make about their pregnancies - forces that are synonymous with the rhetoric of choice - Millar argues for a radical reinterpretation of women's freedom.
Abortion is - and always has been - an arena for contesting power relations between women and men. When in 1973 the Supreme Court made the procedure legal throughout the United States, it seemed that women were at last able to make decisions about their own bodies. In the four decades that followed, however, abortion became ever more politicized and stigmatized. Abortion after Roe chronicles and analyzes what the new legal status and changing political environment have meant for abortion providers and their patients. Johanna Schoen sheds light on the little-studied experience of performing and receiving abortion care from the 1970s - a period of optimism - to the rise of the antiabortion movement and the escalation of antiabortion tactics in the 1980s to the 1990s and beyond, when violent attacks on clinics and abortion providers led to a new articulation of abortion care as moral work. As Schoen demonstrates, more than four decades after the legalization of abortion, the abortion provider community has powerfully asserted that abortion care is a moral good.
A groundbreaking new work on the global battle over reproductive
rights by the author of "The New York Times" bestseller "Kingdom
Coming"
This book contains a foreword by Ann Thompson, Professor of Midwifery, University of Manchester. This illuminating book describes young people's thoughts and feelings before and after an abortion, and includes their experiences in the long term. It increases understanding and stimulates discussion of abortion issues without bias, and incorporates political, religious, social, physical and mental considerations in its wide-ranging approach. The personal narratives from both women and men make the issues particularly powerful. "Memories After Abortion" offers thought provoking ideas for all health and social care professionals involved in pregnancy issues. Undergraduate and postgraduate health and social care students, counsellors, therapists, teachers and youth/religious leaders will also find it invaluable. 'Consideration of abortion causes a lot of distress, anxiety and debate within society. This book should be read by women and men so that they can debate and understand each others' views and experiences in their relationships. It should also be read by nurses, midwives, doctors, health-service administrators and those providing social care.' - Ann M Thomson, in the Foreword.
The Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. Yet while the medical procedure is legal--and safe--many women across the country do not have the ability to exercise this reproductive right. Melody Rose examines abortion as a social regulatory policy, thoughtfully and thoroughly chronicling the erosion of abortion rights and availability since Roe. Paying respect to all views of this controversial topic in her engaging new book, Rose explores the success of the right-to-life movement in accumulating local and national policies that restrict access to abortion while enhancing fetal protections. In addition to a basic and brief primer on the practice and history of abortion, Rose considers the roles played by the courts, political parties, and interest groups in constructing barriers to abortion. With an examination of public opinion poll data and a look at both state and national statutory prohibitions on abortion, Rose also shows how powerful language wars have resulted in material policy alterations. Chapter-opening vignettes and vivid storytelling make this brief and topical supplement a good read that is sure to get your students thinking critically about this highly charged topic. As well, the author has augmented chapters with further reading suggestions and provocative discussion questions that invite insightful discussion and analysis.
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John Riddle uncovers the obscure history of contraception and abortifacients from ancient Egypt to the seventeenth century with forays into Victorian England--a topic that until now has evaded the pens of able historians. Riddle's thesis is, quite simply, that the ancient world did indeed possess effective (and safe) contraceptives and abortifacients. The author maintains that this rich body of knowledge about fertility control--widely held in the ancient world--was gradually lost over the course of the Middle Ages, becoming nearly extinct by the early modern period. The reasons for this he suggests, stemmed from changes in the organization of medicine. As university medical training became increasingly important, physicians' ties with folk traditions were broken. The study of birth control methods was just not part of the curriculum. In an especially telling passage, Riddle reveals how Renaissance humanists were ill equipped to provide accurate translations of ancient texts concerning abortifacients due to their limited experience with women's ailments. Much of the knowledge about contraception belonged to an oral culture--a distinctively female-centered culture. From ancient times until the seventeenth century, women held a monopoly on birthing and the treatment of related matters; information passed from midwife to mother, from mother to daughter. Riddle reflects on the difficulty of finding traces of oral culture and the fact that the little existing evidence is drawn from male writers who knew that culture only from a distance. Nevertheless, through extraordinary scholarly sleuthing, the author pieces together the clues and evaluates the scientific merit of theseancient remedies in language that is easily understood by the general reader. His findings will be useful to anyone interested in learning whether it was possible for premodern people to regulate their reproduction without resorting to the extremities of dangerous surgical abortions, the killing of infants, or the denial of biological urges.
What can abortion and divorce laws in other countries teach Americans about these thorny issues? In this incisive new book, noted legal scholar Mary Ann Glendon looks at the experiences of twenty Western nations, including the United States, and shows how they differ, subtly but profoundly, from one another. Her findings challenge many widely held American beliefs. She reveals, for example, that a compromise on the abortion question is not only possible but typical, even in societies that are deeply divided on the matter. Regarding divorce, the extensive reliance on judicial discretion in the United States is not the best way to achieve fairness in arranging child support, spousal maintenance, or division of property-to judge by the experience of other countries. Glendon's analysis, by searching out alternatives to current U.S. practice, identities new possibilities of reform in these areas. After the late 1960s abortion and divorce became more readily available throughout the West-and most readily in this country-but the approach of American law has been anomalous. Compared with other Western nations, the United States permits less regulation of abortion in the interest of the fetus, provides less public support for maternity and child-rearing, and does less to mitigate the economic hardships of divorce through public assistance or enforcement of private obligations of support. Glendon looks at these and more profound differences in the light of a powerful new method of legal interpretation. She sees each country's laws as part of a symbol-creating system that yields a distinctive portrait of individuals, human life, and relations between men and women, parents and children, families and larger communities. American law, more than that of other countries, employs a rhetoric of rights, individual liberty, and tolerance for diversity that, unchecked, contributes to the fragmentation of community and its values. Contemporary U.S. family law embodies a narrative about divorce, abortion, and dependency that is probably not the story most Americans would want to tell about these sad and complex matters but that is recognizably related to many of their most cherished ideals.
This twenty-fifth anniversary edition places abortion politics in the context of reproductive justice today and explains why abortion has been--and remains--a political flashpoint in the United States. Before Roe v. Wade, hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions occurred in the United States every year. Rickie Solinger tells the story of Ruth Barnett, an abortionist in Portland, Oregon, from 1918 to 1968, to demonstrate how the law, not back-alley practitioners, endangered women's lives in the years before legalized abortion. Women from all walks of life came to Barnett, who worked in a proper office, undisturbed by legal authorities, and never lost a patient. But in the illegal era following World War II, Barnett and other practitioners were hounded by police and became targets for politicians; women seeking abortions were forced to turn to syndicates run by racketeers or to use self-induced methods that often ended in injury or death. This new edition places abortion politics in the context of reproductive justice today. Despite the change in women's status since Barnett's time, key cultural and political meanings of abortion have endured. Opponents of Roe v. Wade continue their efforts to recriminalize abortion and reestablish an inexorable relationship between biology and destiny. The Abortionist is an instructive reminder that legal abortion facilitated women's status as full members of society. Barnett's story clarifies the relationship of legal abortion to human dignity and shows why preserving and extending Roe v. Wade ensures women's freedom to decide for themselves what is best for their health.
After the granting of the vote to women in 1918, the struggle for women's rights intensified with a nationwide campaign for the right to birth control. This campaign was met with a great deal of hostility; it threatened to overturn Victorian ideas about female sexuality, female empowerment and the traditional roles within the family. The most well known of the campaigners, scientist and early feminist Marie Stopes, opened clinics across England which fitted 'contraception caps' to women for free. The first history of this grassroots social movement, After the Suffragettes offers a window into the social and cultural history of the period, and features new archival material in the forms of memoirs, personal papers and press cuttings. This is an essential contribution to the influential field of women's history and a vital addition to the history of feminism.
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