This useful guide collates original documents from the nineteenth century onwards pertaining to the abortion debate in the USA and in this way seeks to produce a complete picture of abortion issues, examining the developments within this issue and placing current arguments in a historical context.
To begin with there is a short preface from the author which talks about the purpose of the book, offering a “wide array of voices on the subject of abortion policy”, from doctors to lawyers, judges, extreme antiabortionists, health care workers, patients and policy‐makers. There is also a chronology from 1588 to the present day. The guide itself is organized into seven chapters, each concentrating on a particular era, beginning with attitudes to abortion in nineteenth century America, and ending with the current policies of the Bush administration. The structure of each chapter is excerpts of primary materials, such as a book of nineteenth century etiquette, memoirs of nurses, the Roe v. Wade ruling and so on. After each excerpt, the document is analysed in itself with explanation of the source in the context of the abortion debate. The chapters also contain grey‐boxed historical notes entitled “In history” which are bite‐sized pieces of information appropriate to the primary source under discussion. For example, a statement regarding abortion from Pope Paul VI is preceded by a small story about a group of ministers and rabbis in 1967 who announced their intention to help women seeking an abortion.
To look at the content in a little more details, Chapter 1, “Abortion in early America” deals with nineteenth century rather laissez‐faire attitudes to abortion which tended to leave the decision in the hands of the midwives, although sources display a growing interest in the moral and ethical aspects of abortion. In Chapter 2, “Early twentieth‐century tensions and trends” looks at the growing nanny state where women began to find their reproductive choices extremely limited to the point of enforced sterilization for certain ethnic groups. The issue was being discussed in the public domain for the first time, as we can see from the 1960 Newsweek piece “The abortion racket – what should be done?” reproduced here. Chapter 3 goes into this in more detail, looking at abortion in the USA during the 1960s and 1970s and how far the social and political upheaval of this era influenced attitudes towards it. Documents in this chapter outline the movement towards legalization as well as the responding anti‐abortion lobby. There is an excerpt from The Abortion Handbook for Responsible Women which concentrates on women regaining control over their own minds and bodies side‐by‐side with Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae which sets out the church's opposition to abortion and was the beginning of the pro‐life movement as it is today.
Chapter 4 looks in detail at one of the landmark cases in this debate: Roe v. Wade examining the effects of the case which went beyond the immediate issue of abortion, affecting legal, federal and social changes. There is a lengthy section from the ruling which argues that the protection of women's health was the real outcome of this case; this chapter also includes contemporary comment on the ruling both for and against as well as the Hyde Amendment which ended a lot of federal funding for abortion. Chapter 5, “The parties collide”, goes into more detail about politics and abortion and how both political parties came to be defined as either pro‐choice or pro‐life. Chapter 6, “The pendulum swings again”, is about the backlash against abortion over the last 15 years, including increased violence against clinics and clinical staff and a growing concern for the protection of the unborn foetus. As Rose says in her introductory paragraph, “From 1995 until the end of his presidency, Bill Clinton was barely able to stem the tide of anti‐abortion reform, and then only with his veto pen”. Documents here include the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act and Naomi Wold's controversial article from 1995, “Our bodies, our souls”, which spoke of the foetus as human and caused uproar among the pro‐choice movement. Finally Chapter 7, “The battle continues into the twenty‐first century” is an update of sorts with the issue unresolved and both sides affected by the strong anti‐abortion stance of the current government. This chapter includes a transcript of George Bush's stem cell address given at his ranch in Texas, Jimmy Carter's views on Roe v. Wade and Hillary Clinton's address to the Family Planning Advocates of New York which talked about reproductive health and culture around the world and how complex abortion was, legally, politically and as a personal decision.
Each chapter has a list of further reading at the end and the book ends with a bibliography of articles and monographs as well as a list of relevant web sites and an author conclusion.
This is a contentious and often emotional issue and one that is unlikely to be fully resolved. It concentrates solely on abortion in the USA, which, as the tensions between the American government and the pro‐choice movement escalates, is understandable. Concentrating on American sources also means that this guide is concise and accessible without having to branch out into explanations of events and laws from around the world. It provides a fully rounded picture of the arguments to date and puts twenty‐first century issues in a historical context: one may see how social, political and economic change has contributed to changes in attitude to abortion. I would recommend this book for social science, medical, historical and legal collections. Those working in clinical sectors may also find it useful.
