Shannon Stettner – författare

When Henry Morgentaler, Canada's best-known abortion rights advocate, died in 2013, activists and scholars began to reassess the state of abortion in this country. In Abortion, some of the foremost researchers in Canada challenge current thinking by revealing the discrepancy between what people are experiencing on the ground and what people believe the law to be after the 1988 Morgentaler decision.Grouped into four themes – History, Experience, Politics, and Reproductive Justice – these essays showcase new theoretical frameworks and approaches from law, history, medicine, women's studies, and political science as they document the diversity of abortion experiences across the country, from those of Indigenous women in the pre-Morgentaler era to a lack of access in the age of so-called decriminalization.Together, the contributors make a case for shifting the debate from abortion rights to reproductive justice and caution against focusing on "choice" or medicalization without understanding the broader context of why and when people seek out abortions.

Until the late 1960s, the authorities on abortion were for the mostpart men—politicians, clergy, lawyers, physicians, all of whomhad an interest in regulating women's bodies. Even today, when wehear women speak publicly about abortion, the voices are usually thoseof the leaders of women's and abortion rights organizations,women who hold political office, and, on occasion, female physicians.We also hear quite frequently from spokeswomen for anti-abortiongroups. Rarely, however, do we hear the voices of ordinarywomen—women whose lives have been in some way touched byabortion. Their thoughts typically owe more to human circumstance thanto ideology, and without them, we run the risk of thinking and talkingabout the issue of abortion only in the abstract.Without Apology seeks to address this issue by gatheringthe voices of activists, feminists, and scholars as well as abortionproviders and clinic support staff alongside the stories of women whoseexperience with abortion is more personal. With the particular aim ofmoving beyond the polarizing rhetoric that has characterized the issueof abortion and reproductive justice for so long, WithoutApology is an engrossing and arresting account that will promoteboth reflection and discussion.

This multidisciplinary volume investigates different abortion and reproductive practices across time, space, geography, national boundaries, and cultures.