When Abortion Was a Crime (eBook)

Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973, with a New Preface

Leslie J. Reagan (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2022
432 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
9780520387423 (ISBN)

Infos

The definitive history of abortion in the United States, with a new preface that equips readers for what’s to come.
 
When Abortion Was a Crime is the must-read book on abortion history. Originally published ahead of the thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, this award-winning study was the first to examine the entire period during which abortion was illegal in the United States, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and ending with that monumental case in 1973. When Abortion Was a Crime is filled with intimate stories and nuanced analysis, demonstrating how abortion was criminalized and policed—and how millions of women sought abortions regardless of the law. With this edition, Leslie J. Reagan provides a new preface that addresses the dangerous and ongoing threats to abortion access across the country, and the precarity of our current moment.
 
While abortions have typically been portrayed as grim "back alley" operations, this deeply researched history confirms that many abortion providers—including physicians—practiced openly and safely, despite prohibitions by the state and the American Medical Association. Women could find cooperative and reliable practitioners; but prosecution, public humiliation, loss of privacy, and inferior medical care were a constant threat. Reagan's analysis of previously untapped sources, including inquest records and trial transcripts, shows the fragility of patient rights and raises provocative questions about the relationship between medicine and law. With the right to abortion increasingly under attack, this book remains the definitive history of abortion in the United States, offering vital lessons for every American concerned with health care, civil liberties, and personal and sexual freedom.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments 
Preface to 2022 Edition 
Notes to Preface to 2022 Edition
Selected Bibliography 

Introduction 
1 An Open Secret
2 Private Practices
3 Antiabortion Campaigns, Private and Public
4 Interrogations and Investigations
5 Expansion and Specialization
6 Raids and Rules
7 Repercussions 
8 Radicalization of Reform 
Epilogue: Post-Roe, Post-Casey 

Note on Sources
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.2.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Gesundheitswesen
• Themenwelt: Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Prävention / Gesundheitsförderung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: 19th century • Abortion • Abortion rights • American History • bodily autonomy • Childbirth • civil liberties • Court Cases • Crime • Dobbs • Health Care • human body • illegal abortion • Law and Order • Legal issues • Medical Care • Medical issues • personal freedom • Pregnancy • privacy • prochoice • Prosecution • reproductive justice • reproductive politics • Reproductive rights • Right to Choose • Roe v Wade • sexual freedom • Sexuality • Supreme Court • Supreme Court Cases • Transcripts • Trial • True story • United States history • us history • womens issues • womens right to choose
• ISBN-13: 9780520387423 / 9780520387423