Author note: Carole Joffe is a Professor in the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College.

It seems unthinkable that citizens of one of the most powerful nations in the world must risk their lives and livelihoods in the search for access to necessary health care. And yet it is no surprise that in many places throughout the United States, getting an abortion can be a monumental challenge. Anti-choice politicians and activists have worked tirelessly to impose needless restrictions on this straightforward medical procedure that, at best, delay it and, at worst, create medical risks and deny women their constitutionally protected right to choose. Obstacle Course tells the story of abortion in America, capturing a disturbing reality of insurmountable barriers people face when trying to exercise their legal rights to medical services. Authors David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe lay bare the often arduous and unnecessarily burdensome process of terminating a pregnancy: the sabotaged decision-making, clinics in remote locations, insurance bans, harassing protesters, forced ultrasounds and dishonest medical information, arbitrary waiting periods, and unjustified procedure limitations. Based on patients' stories as well as interviews with abortion providers and allies from every state in the country, Obstacle Course reveals the unstoppable determination required of women in the pursuit of reproductive autonomy as well as the incredible commitment of abortion providers. Without the efforts of an unheralded army of medical professionals, clinic administrators, counselors, activists, and volunteers, what is a legal right would be meaningless for the almost one million people per year who get abortions. There is a better way-treating abortion like any other form of health care-but the United States is a long way from that ideal.

Surprising firsthand accounts from the front lines of abortion provision reveal the persistent cultural, political, and economic hurdles to access
More than thirty-five years after women won the right to legal abortion, most people do not realize how inaccessible it has become. In these pages, reproductive-health researcher Carole Joffe shows how a pervasive stigma--cultivated by the religious right--operates to maintain barriers to access by shaming women and marginalizing abortion providers. Through compelling testimony from doctors, health-care workers, and patients, Joffe reports the lived experiences behind the polemics, while also offering hope for a more compassionate standard of women's health care.

The battle for legal abortion in the United States may have been won, but access to safe medical abortions is rapidly narrowing. Some 84 percent of all U.S. counties are now without abortion facilities, and the situation is growing worse. How are we to explain the crisis of abortion access? In Doctors of Conscience, Carole Joffe argues that in addition to the violence and disruption of the anti-abortion movement, the medical community itself must share the blame. Joffe traces the ways mainstream medicine has marginalized abortion even after Roe vs. Wade, by failing to establish needed training and services and by stigmatizing and penalizing doctors who perform abortions. The costs have been high - not only for women with unwanted pregnancies, but also for doctors committed to providing safe medical abortions. Based on in-depth interviews with forty-five physicians who have provided or facilitated abortions, Doctors of Conscience recalls the days before Roe, when emergency rooms were filled with women maimed and infected by botched abortions. Witnessing the desperation of women seeking illegal abortions was a turning point in the careers of many of the doctors interviewed. After Roe, they continued to be haunted by their experiences.

The governments of many industrialized societies have developed extensive childcare facilities and services to meet the needs of young children and their working parents, but no such program on a national scale has yet evolve in the United Staes. Some who oppose federal aid or control believe that mothers should remain at home with their preschool children rather than turn them over to childcare professionals--the "friendly intruders" of the titels--and that any other policy is a threat to the moral climate and stability of family life. However, since the demand for childcare services is very great, and since Congress has previously passed relevant legislation (which was vetoed by President Nixon), the issue of childcare will surely rise again soon. In this study, based upon direct observation of a local childcare program in California, the author examines several pof the practical policy issues concerning childcare which have not yet been resolved. Who will control such programs in the future, public school systems or others? Which agencies or institutions will certify the competence of childcare personnel? To what extent will parents contribute to the content of the programs provided for their young children? A major part of Professor Joffe's study is concerned with the emerging professionalism of early childhood educators. In a pattern now understood to be classic, such persons seek status and recognition through education, certification, and membership in professional associations. However, what happens when parents and professional disagree about values, behavioral norms, and the educational content of a nursery school program? Who is the "expert" in such a confrontation? The author observed profoundly different orientations to childcare not only between professionals and parents, but also among different groups of parents, especially along racial and class lines; how can professionals accommodate such differences? The author's conclusions emerge from careful study of day-by-day encounters between staff, parents and supervisors, giving to her book a sense of immediacy and well-focused understanding that is rarely achieved in academic studies. Parents, educators and policy analysts concerned with the subject will find it indispensable. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

The governments of many industrialized societies have developed extensive childcare facilities and services to meet the needs of young children and their working parents, but no such program on a national scale has yet evolve in the United Staes. Some who oppose federal aid or control believe that mothers should remain at home with their preschool children rather than turn them over to childcare professionals--the "friendly intruders" of the titels--and that any other policy is a threat to the moral climate and stability of family life. However, since the demand for childcare services is very great, and since Congress has previously passed relevant legislation (which was vetoed by President Nixon), the issue of childcare will surely rise again soon. In this study, based upon direct observation of a local childcare program in California, the author examines several pof the practical policy issues concerning childcare which have not yet been resolved. Who will control such programs in the future, public school systems or others? Which agencies or institutions will certify the competence of childcare personnel? To what extent will parents contribute to the content of the programs provided for their young children? A major part of Professor Joffe's study is concerned with the emerging professionalism of early childhood educators. In a pattern now understood to be classic, such persons seek status and recognition through education, certification, and membership in professional associations. However, what happens when parents and professional disagree about values, behavioral norms, and the educational content of a nursery school program? Who is the "expert" in such a confrontation? The author observed profoundly different orientations to childcare not only between professionals and parents, but also among different groups of parents, especially along racial and class lines; how can professionals accommodate such differences? The author's conclusions emerge from careful study of day-by-day encounters between staff, parents and supervisors, giving to her book a sense of immediacy and well-focused understanding that is rarely achieved in academic studies. Parents, educators and policy analysts concerned with the subject will find it indispensable. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

It seems unthinkable that citizens of one of the most powerful nations in the world must risk their lives and livelihoods in the search for access to necessary health care. And yet it is no surprise that in many places throughout the United States, getting an abortion can be a monumental challenge. Anti-choice politicians and activists have worked tirelessly to impose needless restrictions on this straightforward medical procedure that, at best, delay it and, at worst, create medical risks and deny women their constitutionally protected right to choose. Obstacle Course tells the story of abortion in America, capturing a disturbing reality of insurmountable barriers people face when trying to exercise their legal rights to medical services. Authors David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe lay bare the often arduous and unnecessarily burdensome process of terminating a pregnancy: the sabotaged decision-making, clinics in remote locations, insurance bans, harassing protesters, forced ultrasounds and dishonest medical information, arbitrary waiting periods, and unjustified procedure limitations. Based on patients' stories as well as interviews with abortion providers and allies from every state in the country, Obstacle Course reveals the unstoppable determination required of women in the pursuit of reproductive autonomy as well as the incredible commitment of abortion providers. Without the efforts of an unheralded army of medical professionals, clinic administrators, counselors, activists, and volunteers, what is a legal right would be meaningless for the almost one million people per year who get abortions. There is a better way-treating abortion like any other form of health care-but the United States is a long way from that ideal.