Abortion and Women's Choice: The State, Sexuality and Reproductive Freedom

(Paperback)

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Sadly no less relevant today than when it was first published, this prize-winning study is the definitive text on the politics of abortion and fertility. Drawing on a wealth of material, Petchesky provides overwhelming evidence against the anti-abortion forces and also takes up issues of teenage sexuality, the politics of eugenics, and women's relationship to medical technology. Petchesky deftly weaves together the history of the practice of abortion and state policies to contain it; the social, economic, and cultural conditions under which women utilize it; and the legal, moral, and political battles that surround it.

Reviews

This is an important contribution to the debate over reproduction, and to political thought. -- Sheila Rowbotham
This is the best book I have read on the politics of reproduction. It raises complex theoretical and strategic questions, in a clear and accessible way, and represents an important breakthrough in feminist thinking. -- Leslie Doyal, author of What Makes Women Sick
Abortion and Woman's Choice is a major contribution to feminist theory and politics. Petchecksy's analysis of abortion and the broader issues of reproductive rights succeeds brilliantly in combining scholarly rigour with political analysis. She draws on a wealth of material from sociology, social history, law, ethics, demography and biomedical technology to provide an analysis of issues which are critical for women, and her analysis of a socialist-feminist politics of reproductive freedom goes way beyond the simplistic notions of rights and freedom which are common on both sides of the Atlantic. -- Veronica Beechey, author of Unequal Work

Author Bio

Rosalind Petchesky is a political scientist and a leading theorist on international reproductive rights. Petchesky is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author of The Individuals Rights and International Organization and Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights. In addition to her research contributions, she initiated and coordinates the International Reproductive Rights Research Action Group (IRRRAG) in its work of assessing, across cultures, womens own views of their reproductive rights. She is also involved with the International Working Group on Sexuality and Social Policy in coordinating a multicountry, multisite comparative study of national and international policies affecting sexuality and sexual rights.