Abortion and Women's Choice

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 Individual's 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, women's 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.

As I revisit this work, its relevance becomes even more apparent in the face of contemporary backlashes to women's rights. The book stands as a timeless testament to the ongoing struggle for reproductive justice around the world. Professor Petchesky's insights and advocacy for women's autonomy over their bodies continues to inspire and inform, and serve as an insightful guide to reproductive rights for the new generation.

• Foreword by Zillah EisensteinAbortion Again? Preface to the 2024 EditionForeword to the British Edition PrefaceIntroduction: Beyond ''A Woman's Right to Choose''-Feminist Ideas about Reproductive RightsControlling Our Bodies / The Social Relations of Reproduction / Reproductive Politics, Past and FuturePART I Fertility Control in Theory and History1. Fertility, Gender, and ClassThe Role of Technology / Malthusian Ideology and Bourgeois Culture / Birth Control in the Bourgeois Family / Class Divisions, Motherhood, and Fertility Control among the Poor / The Place of Abortion2. Abortion and the State: Nineteenth-Century CriminalizationFalling Birthrates and Rising Abortions / The Medical Attack / The Eugenics Movement and Sterilization / Abortion, Sterilization, and the Socialist-Feminist Birth Control Movement3. Abortion and the State: Twentieth-Century LegalizationFalling Birthrates and Rising Abortions in the 1960s and 1970s / Population Control and the Legalization of Abortion / The Role of Popular Organizing: Feminists and LibertariansPART II Abortion Practice in the 1970s4. The Social and Economic Conditions of Women Who Get AbortionsRecent Trends in Abortion Practice / Class and Race Differences in Resolving Nonmarital Pregnancies / Abortion Access for Poor Women5. Considering the Alternatives: The Problems of ContraceptionThe Politics of Contraception / The Inadequacies of Contraception / Abortion and Contraception-The Necessary Link / The Failure of institutional ''Delivery Systems''6. Abortion and Heterosexual Culture: The Teenage QuestionDefining Sexuality-The Role of Abortion / The Rise in Teenage Sex and Pregnancy-A Revised View / Continuities in Heterosexual Culture / Grids of Conflict and Sources of ChangePART III Sexual Politics in the 1980s7. The Antiabortion Movement and the Rise of the New RightLaunching the Neoconservative State / The Organizational Base: Churches and Reproductive Politics / The Ideological Message: Reprivatizing Sexuality and ''Preserving the Family''8. Protecting Family Integrity: The Rightward Drift in the Courts''Medical Necessity'' versus Women's Autonomy: Roe v. Wade / Privacy Rights versus Social Justice: Medicaid Funding / Sexual Freedom versus ''Authority in Their Own Household'': Parental Notification9. Morality and Personhood: A Feminist PerspectiveFetuses and Persons / Toward a Feminist-Humanist Concept of Personhood / Fetal Politics and False Dilemmas10. Women's Consciousness and the Abortion DecisionDoing and Believing-The Morality of Praxis / Maternal Practice and Reproductive ConsciousnessConclusion: The Feminist Movement and the Conditions of Reproductive FreedomIndex