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From Crime to Choice The Transformation of Abortion in America
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Nanette J. Davis
Book Code: DCC/
ISBN: 0-313-24929-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-24929-7
290 pages, apps.
Greenwood Press
Publication: 12/23/1985
List Price: $65.00 (UK Sterling Price: £37.95)
Availability: Out of stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Subjects:
Series Title: Contributions in Women's Studies
Series Number: 60
Reviews:
  • Changing attitudes toward abortion is one theme of this study of mid-20th-century abortion systems. The other is the continued social control of abortion (hence reproduction, hence women's lives) by physicians, lawyers, liberal clergy, and counselors. Data from women obtaining abortions illustrate both the alienation that resulted from subordination to others' definitions of the situation and the labeling of the women as deviant. Based on Davis's dissertation research in Michigan around 1970, the book may appear limited in scope but in fact uses a case study approach to address a broad range of conceptual issues: social control, social networks, medicalization of deviance, legitimation, secrecy, and partiarchy. It fills an important gap in the literature, which has tended to emphasize the 19th century and post-Roe v. Wade era. Writing from a feminist as well as sociological perspective, Davis supports conuinued efforts to redefine abortion as non-deviant and to assert women's control over reproduction. But she argues that this must include moral and ethical deliberation and the integration of women's social networks into a rhetoric and politics of abortion that has heretofore emphasized individual rights and "choice"...the book has a mass of material and perceptive analytical comments that make it important reading....
    —CHOICE
Description: This work provides the first broadly based documentation and analysis of the evolution of abortion from criminal act to personal choice. The author places the abortion question in the wider context of change in the social realm and in law, politics, economics, and medical practice. Dealing with the confrontation between "pro-life" and "pro-choice" groups, Davis analyzes feminist interpretations of abortion reform and discusses efforts to create a human-centered procedure that will benefit women themselves rather than doctors or clinic managers. Other important issues covered include the historical inconsistency of abortion laws and their enforcement; social and institutional support systems before and after legalization; social policy and abortion; the effects of legalized abortion on women's kinship ties; the Equal Rights Amdendment; and "biological politics."
LC Card Number: 85-8018
LCC Class: HQ767
Dewey Class: 363.4
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