Abortion Law and Politics Today

by Ellie Lee (Editor)

Overview

Women's needs are placed at the centre of this collection. The contributors discuss the extent to which the contemporary legal framework on abortion matches the needs of women faced with unwanted pregnancy. The book contains sections on Britain, including an account of the campaign to legalize abortion, written by those centrally involved with that campaign; international comparisons of abortion law, with chapters on France, the United States, Ireland and Poland; and chapters covering contemporary debates, including men's rights in abortion and abortion for foetal abnormality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349268788
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/12/1998
Edition description:	1st ed. 1998
Pages:	233
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

JO BRIDGEMAN Lecturer in Law at the Centre for Legal Studies, University of Sussex DILYS COSSEY Manager of the Parliamentarians Project of the European Network International Planned Parenthood Federation KATE FISHER Currently completing a doctoral study MARIE FOX Lecturer in Law at Manchester University ANN FUREDI Director of Birth Control Trust JANET HADLEY Journalist and writer specialising in health and social policy issues FRANCES KISSLING President of the Washington based pro-choice advocacy organisation MELANIE LATHAM Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester MAXINE LATTIMER Doctoral student in Social Anthropology, University of Sussex DAVID NOLAN Press and Information Officer for Birth Control Trust and news editor of Abortion Review TONY O'BRIEN International consultant on reproductive health advocacy DAVID PAINTIN Emeritus Reader in Obstetrics and gynaecology at Imperial College School of Medicine DENISE SHANNON Senior Associate at Catholics For a Free Choice SALLY SHELDON Lecturer in Health Law at the University of Keele MADELEINE SIMMS Served on the executive committee of the Abortion Law Reform Association AUDEREY SIMPSON Director of the Family Planning Association, Northern Ireland DOMINIC STANDISH Researcher at the University of Kent at Canterbury JULIET TIZZARD Director of Progress Educational Trust

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Editor's Introduction PART I Voices from the 1960s: Abortion Law Reform in Britain in the 1960s - What were the Issues then?; M. Simms A Medical View of Abortion in the 1960s; D. Paintin Campaigning for Abortion Law Reform; D. Cossey Women's Experience of Abortion Before the 1967 Abortion Act: a Study of South Wales c. 1930-50; K. Fisher The Abortion Act 1967: a Critical Perspective; S. Sheldon Dominant Ideas versus Women's Reality: Hegemonic Discourse in British Abortion Law; M. Lattimer A Woman's Right to Choose?; J. Bridgeman PART II Abortion in Northern Ireland: A Problem Exported; A. Simpson Abortion Law in the Republic of Ireland; T. O'Brien From Abortion on Demand to its Criminalisation: the Case of Poland in the 1990s; D. Standish Reform and Revolution: the Campaigns for Abortion in Britain and France; M. Latham Abortion Rights in the United States: Discourse and Dissension; F. Kissling and D. Shannon PART III Wrong but the Right Thing to Do: Public Opinion and Abortion; A. Furedi Prenatal Tests: Blessings and Burdens; J. Hadley Reproductive Technology: New Ethical Dilemmas and Old Moral Prejudices; J. Tizzard Abortion Decision-Making: Taking Men's Needs Seriously; M. Fox Abortion: Should Men have a Say?; D. Nolan Index

Editorial Reviews

'In this collection, Ellie Lee brings together innovative essays about the debates surrounding abortion. On a subject where controversy is inevitable, the authors in this extremely valuable volume offer us a reading of abortion for the twenty-first century.' - Professor Mary Evans, University of Kent at Canterbury

From the Publisher

Addressed to readers with a pro-choice persuasion, examines the past and current debates about abortion by placing the needs of women with unwanted pregnancies at the center. Activists who were engaged in it describe and critique the British campaign for legalized abortion in the 1960s. Other contributors compare conditions in other industrialized countries and look at such contemporary issues as men's rights and abortion for fetal abnormality. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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