This multidisciplinary volume investigates different abortion and reproductive practices across time, space, geography, national boundaries, and cultures. The authors specialize in the reproductive politics of Australia, Bolivia, Cameroon, France, 'German East Africa,' Ireland, Japan, Sweden, South Africa, the United States, and Zanzibar, with historical focuses on the pre-modern era, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the present day. This timely work complicates the many histories and ongoing politics of abortion by exploring the conditions in which women have been forced to make these life-altering decisions.

This multidisciplinary volume investigates different abortion and reproductive practices across time, space, geography, national boundaries, and cultures. The authors specialize in the reproductive politics of Australia, Bolivia, Cameroon, France, 'German East Africa,' Ireland, Japan, Sweden, South Africa, the United States, and Zanzibar, with historical focuses on the pre-modern era, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the present day. This timely work complicates the many histories and ongoing politics of abortion by exploring the conditions in which women have been forced to make these life-altering decisions.

When Henry Morgentaler, Canada’s best-known abortion rights advocate, died in 2013, activists and scholars began to reassess the state of abortion in the country. In this volume, some of Canada’s foremost researchers challenge current thinking about abortion by revealing the discrepancy between what Canadians believe the law to be after the 1988 Morgentaler decision and what people are experiencing on the ground. Showcasing new theoretical frameworks and approaches from law, history, medicine, women’s studies, and political science, these timely essays reveal the diversity of abortion experiences across the country, past and present, and make a case for shifting the debate from abortion rights to reproductive justice.

Until the late 1960s, the authorities on abortion were for the mostpart men-politicians, clergy, lawyers, physicians, all of whomhad an interest in regulating women's bodies. Even today, when wehear women speak publicly about abortion, the voices are usually thoseof the leaders of women's and abortion rights organizations,women who hold political office, and, on occasion, female physicians.We also hear quite frequently from spokeswomen for anti-abortiongroups. Rarely, however, do we hear the voices of ordinarywomen-women whose lives have been in some way touched byabortion. Their thoughts typically owe more to human circumstance thanto ideology, and without them, we run the risk of thinking and talkingabout the issue of abortion only in the abstract. Without Apology seeks to address this issue by gatheringthe voices of activists, feminists, and scholars as well as abortionproviders and clinic support staff alongside the stories of women whoseexperience with abortion is more personal. With the particular aim ofmoving beyond the polarizing rhetoric that has characterized the issueof abortion and reproductive justice for so long, WithoutApology is an engrossing and arresting account that will promoteboth reflection and discussion.