An intelligently balanced history of the abortion issue and a
splendid analysis of its sources. Prof Luker (Sociology, UCal San
Diego) herself declines to take sides. "The belief in simplicity,"
she rightly insists, "reduces any possibility of dialogue or
learning." Her historical summary demonstrates, saliently, that
"the moral status of the embryo has always been ambiguous." The
first anti-abortion movement in America was mounted between
1850-1890 by doctors eager to establish their expertise over
competing professionals (lawyers and ministers) and over their
middle-class female clientele, many of whom accepted and practiced
abortion. Claiming specialized knowledge about gestation, the
doctors argued that the embryo had a right to life, but that this
right was conditional, with only the doctors knowing when to
terminate it. What resulted, according to Luker, was a
"reallocation of social responsibility" from woman to doctor; the
discussion remained calm and professional. Abortion then
disappeared "beneath the cloak of an emerging profession's claims."
But in 1962, the celebrated "Finkbine case" - in which a woman made
public her intended abortion of a deformed fetus - ignited both
anti-abortion forces, then largely Catholic professionals, and
other, pro-abortion professionals. Passage of the 1967 California
Abortion Act in turn stirred up a grass-roots movement supported by
working women, for whom abortion-law repeal represented "an attack
on both the segregated labor market and the cultural expectations
about women's roles." The very success of the anti-abortion
activists - demonstrated in the 1973 Supreme Court rulings - set
off a wave of Right to Life opposition. The two political camps
reflect two world views. While pro-lifers believe men and women are
fundamentally different, with separate "natural" roles, pro-choice
advocates believe in the substantial similarity of men and women,
with women's reproduction a potential barrier to social equality.
While prolifers emphasize the centrality of religious faith,
pro-choice people count on human reason to understand and alter the
environment. Why, in contrast to the muted 19th-century debate, is
the current debate so rancorous? "Because it is a referendum on the
place and meaning of motherhood," Luker maintains - with the women
on the two sides clearly drawn from "two different social worlds
and the hopes and beliefs those worlds support." The debate will
surely continue, but Luker clearly reveals the two opposing forces:
their shared history and contrasting moral and political views.
Sociology engagee, and well clone at that. (Kirkus Reviews)
In this important study of the abortion controversy in the United
States, Kristin Luker examines the issues, people, and beliefs on
both sides of the abortion conflict. She draws data from twenty
years of public documents and newspaper accounts, as well as over
two hundred interviews with both pro-life and pro-choice activists.
She argues that moral positions on abortion are intimately tied to
views on sexual behavior, the care of children, family life,
technology, and the importance of the individual.
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