This ground-breaking, interdisciplinary volume provides an overdue assessment of how infertility has been understood, treated and experienced in different times and places. It brings together scholars from disciplines including history, literature, psychology, philosophy, and the social sciences to create the first large-scale review of recent research on the history of infertility. Through exploring an unparalleled range of chronological periods and geographical regions, it develops historical perspectives on an apparently transhistorical experience. It shows how experiences of infertility, access to treatment, and medical perspectives on this 'condition' have been mediated by social, political, and cultural discourses. The handbook reflects on and interrogates different approaches to the history of infertility, including the potential of cross-disciplinary perspectives and the uses of different kinds of historical source material, and includes lists of research resources to aid teachers and researchers. It is an essential 'go-to' point for anyone interested in infertility and its history. Chapter 19 is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

A timely examination of how restrictive policies force women to travel both within and across national borders to access abortion services. Safe, legal, and affordable abortion is widely recognized as an essential medical service for women across the world. When access to that service is denied or restricted, women are compelled to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, seek backstreet abortionists, attempt self-induced abortions, or even travel to less restrictive states, provinces, and countries to receive care. Abortion across Borders focuses on travel across domestic and international boundaries to terminate a pregnancy. Christabelle Sethna and Gayle Davis have gathered a cadre of authors to examine how restrictive policies force women to move both within and across national borders in order to reach abortion providers, often at great expense, over long distances and with significant safety risks. Taking historical and contemporary perspectives, contributors examine the situation in regions that include Texas, Prince Edward Island, Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Eastern Europe. Throughout, they take a feminist intersectional approach to transnational travel and access to abortion services that is sensitive to inequalities of gender, race, and class in reproductive health care. This multidisciplinary volume raises challenging logistical, legal, and ethical questions while exploring the gendered aspects of medical tourism. A noticeable rollback of reproductive rights and renewed attention to border security in many parts of the world will make Abortion across Borders of timely interest to scholars of gender and women's studies, health, medicine, law, mobility studies, and reproductive justice. Contributors: Barbara Baird, Niklas Barke, Anna Bogic, Hayley Brown, Lori A. Brown, Cathrine Chambers, Ewelina Ciaputa, Gayle Davis, Mary Gilmartin, Agata Ignaciuk, Sinead Kennedy, Lena Lennerhed, Jo-Ann MacDonald, Colleen MacQuarrie, Jane O'Neill, Clare Parker, Christabelle Sethna, Sally Sheldon

The Abortion Act 1967 may be the most contested law in UK history, sitting on a fault line between the shifting tectonic plates of a rapidly transforming society. While it has survived repeated calls for its reform, with its text barely altered for over five decades, women's experiences of accessing abortion services under it have evolved considerably. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, this book explores how the Abortion Act was given meaning by a diverse cast of actors including women seeking access to services, doctors and service providers, campaigners, judges, lawyers, and policy makers. By adopting an innovative biographical approach to the law, the book shows that the Abortion Act is a 'living law'. Using this historically grounded socio-legal approach, this enlightening book demonstrates how the Abortion Act both shaped and was shaped by a constantly changing society.

How did the Scottish government respond to sexual attitudes and behaviour in the period 1950 to 1980? In exploring the role of the state in the regulation of modern sexuality, historians have largely overlooked the policy-making process in Scotland. Davidson and Davis lead us through the Scottish sexual landscape leading up to the global crisis of HIV/AIDS, analysing post-war state policy towards issues such as abortion, family planning, homosexuality, pornography, prostitution, sex education and sexual heath. How progressive were Scottish policy makers during this period of rapid social change? The book examines to what extent the policy mindset shifted from a moral and legalistic approach to one that was more permissive. How far did the puritanical elements of Scottish Presbyterianism continue to inhibit policy and to what degree did policy makers empower a broader range of sexual behaviours and moderate the traditional surveillance and censure of female sexuality? Finally, in what respects did Scotland's national identity affect the engagement of the Scottish state with sexual issues? Key Words Abortion, censorship, contraception, family planning, government, homosexuality, homosexual law reform, morality, obscenity, policy-making, pornography, prostitution, Scottish, sex, sexuality, sex education, sexual health, sexual offences, sexual reproduction, sexually transmitted diseases, state Key features * Adds an important Scottish perspective to the study of sexuality and policy-making in modern society. There are few resources for the student of Scotland's sexual history and its political and social context. * Provides a significant addition to the history of sexuality in 20th-century Britain * Makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the later 20th-century Scottish state, and especially the local state * Adds to our knowledge of the shaping of policy on key issues relating to sexual morality in modern society including abortion, censorship, family planning, homosexuality, prostitution, sex education, and sexually transmitted diseases

This is an important contribution to the sexual history of Britain. This valuable study fills a gap in our understanding of modern Scottish, and British, society, providing as it does a vital perspective on Scotland's sexual history and its political and social context. It is unique in exploring the period from 1950 to 1980, covering the immediate post-war and Scotland's sexual 'coming-of-age'. It charts a steady political growth from a deeply moralistic policy framework towards a less judgmental, global and scientific context. Davidson and Davis lead us through the Scottish sexual landscape leading up to the global crisis of HIV/AIDS, analysing post-war state policy towards issues such as abortion, family planning, homosexuality, pornography, prostitution, sex education and sexual heath. Policy-makers, social historians, teachers and students alike will find this an invaluable resource on the study of sexuality and policy-making in modern society.