Rickie Solinger

Loretta Ross

"Reproductive Justice is a first-of-its-kind primer providing a comprehensive yet succinct description of the field. Written by two legendary scholar-activists, Reproductive Justice introduces students to an intersectional analysis of race, class, and gender politics. Clearly showing how reproductive justice is a political movement of reproductive rights and social justice, the authors illuminate how, for example, a low-income, physically -disabled woman, living in West Texas with no viable public transportation, no healthcare clinic, and no living-wage employment opportunities, faces a complex web of structural obstacles as she contemplates her sexual and reproductive intentions. Putting the lives and lived experience of women of color at the center of the book, and using a human rights analysis, the authors show how reproductive justice is significantly different from the pro-choice/anti-abortion debates that have long-dominated the headlines and mainstream political conflict. In a period in which women's reproductive lives are imperiled, Reproductive Justice provides an essential guide to understanding and mobilizing around women's rights in the 21st century. Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the 21st Century Series publishes works that explore the contours and content of reproductive justice. The series will include primers intended for students and those new to reproductive justice as well as books of original research to continue to further knowledge and impact society."--Provided by publisher.

An Introduction

Reproductive Justice

The author examines the public policies and community attitudes toward maternity and illegitimate pregnancy in the post World War II era.

Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe V. Wade

Wake Up Little Susie

Winner of the 2013 Bullough Award presented by the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality The term “intersex” evokes diverse images, typically of people who are both male and female or neither male nor female. Neither vision is accurate. The millions of people with an intersex condition, or DSD (disorder of sex development), are men or women whose sex chromosomes, gonads, or sex anatomy do not fit clearly into the male/female binary norm. Until recently, intersex conditions were shrouded in shame and secrecy: many adults were unaware that they had been born with an intersex condition and those who did know were advised to hide the truth. Current medical protocols and societal treatment of people with an intersex condition are based upon false stereotypes about sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, which create unique challenges to framing effective legal claims and building a strong cohesive movement. InIntersexuality and the Law, Julie A. Greenberg examines the role that legal institutions can play in protecting the rights of people with an intersex condition. She also explores the relationship between the intersex movement and other social justice movements that have effectively utilized legal strategies to challenge similar discriminatory practices. She discusses the feasibility of forming effective alliances and developing mutually beneficial legal arguments with feminists, LGBT organizations, and disability rights advocates to eradicate the discrimination suffered by these marginalized groups.

A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America

Pregnancy and Power

Presents a feminist history of public policy on abortion since Roe v. Wade, arguing that adoption as an alternative to abortion amounts to the transfer of babies from women of one social class to women in a higher social class.

How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States

Beggars and Choosers

Contains eighteen essays that offer a pro-rights perspective on the issue of abortion, examining the topic within the historical framework of the second half of the twentieth century, and discussing the reasons why abortion continues to be one of the most violently contested issues in the United States.

A Half Century of Struggle, 1950–2000

Abortion Wars

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, advocates of legal abortion mostly used the term rights when describing their agenda. But after Roe v. Wade, their determination to develop a respectable, nonconfrontational movement encouraged many of them to use the word choice--an easier concept for people weary of various rights movements. At first the distinction in language didn't seem to make much difference-the law seemed to guarantee both. But in the years since, the change has become enormously important. In Beggars and Choosers, Solinger shows how historical distinctions between women of color and white women, between poor and middle-class women, were used in new ways during the era of "choice." Politicians and policy makers began to exclude certain women from the class of "deserving mothers" by using the language of choice to create new public policies concerning everything from Medicaid funding for abortions to family tax credits, infertility treatments, international adoption, teen pregnancy, and welfare. Solinger argues that the class-and-race-inflected guarantee of "choice" is a shaky foundation on which to build our notions of reproductive freedom. Her impassioned argument is for reproductive rights as human rights--as a basis for full citizenship status for women.

This twenty-fifth anniversary edition places abortion politics in the context of reproductive justice today and explains why abortion has been—and remains—a political flashpoint in the United States. Before Roe v. Wade, hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions occurred in the United States every year. Rickie Solinger tells the story of Ruth Barnett, an abortionist in Portland, Oregon, from 1918 to 1968, to demonstrate how the law, not back‐alley practitioners, endangered women’s lives in the years before legalized abortion. Women from all walks of life came to Barnett, who worked in a proper office, undisturbed by legal authorities, and never lost a patient. But in the illegal era following World War II, Barnett and other practitioners were hounded by police and became targets for politicians; women seeking abortions were forced to turn to syndicates run by racketeers or to use self‐induced methods that often ended in injury or death. This new edition places abortion politics in the context of reproductive justice today. Despite the change in women’s status since Barnett’s time, key cultural and political meanings of abortion have endured. Opponents of Roe v. Wade continue their efforts to recriminalize abortion and reestablish an inexorable relationship between biology and destiny. The Abortionist is an instructive reminder that legal abortion facilitated women’s status as full members of society. Barnett’s story clarifies the relationship of legal abortion to human dignity and shows why preserving and extending Roe v. Wade ensures women’s freedom to decide for themselves what is best for their health.

A Woman against the Law

The Abortionist

Mie Nakachi

When it comes to government's role in personal matters such as family planning, most bristle at any interference from the State on how to exercise their reproductive rights. China's infamous "one child" policy is a well-known example of reproductive politics, but history is filled with other examples of governmental population control to advance its interests. Reproductive States is the first volume of a collection of case studies that explores when and how some of the most populous countries in the world invented and implemented state population policies in the 20th century. The authors, scholars specializing in reproductive politics, survey population policies from key countries on five continents to provide a global perspective. Regardless of the type of government or its cultural history, many of these countries have developed similar policies to control their populations and attempt to combat social problems such as poverty and hunger. However, the common denominator is that states have used women's bodies as a political resource. Far from being just an overseas problem, this volume illustrates how other countries have developed their strategies in response to goals and tactics driven by the United Nations and the United States. Due to fears of a post-World War II "population bomb" and uncertainty of how to deal with the world's poor after the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union led the charge among nations to devise strategies to control their populations, but in different ways. The U.S. and some European countries pressed the poor and ethnic minorities to limit reproduction. China's "one child" policy targeted all ranks of society, while Soviet women (who already had few rights) were under surveillance through state-planned services such as medical care and commodity distribution to detect pregnancy. Interweaving biopolitics, gender studies, statecraft, and world systems, Reproductive States offer reflections on the outcome of such policies and their legacies in our day.

Global Perspectives on the Invention and Implementation of Population Policy

Reproductive States

"Striking, original, and stimulating. Even readers with extensive familiarity of the literature regarding women in prison will learn something new."--Mona Danner, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice

Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States

Interrupted Life

Kayhan Irani

Madeline Fox

Telling Stories to Change the World is a powerful collection of essays about community-based and interest-based projects where storytelling is used as a strategy for speaking out for justice. Contributors from locations across the globe—including Uganda, Darfur, China, Afghanistan, South Africa, New Orleans, and Chicago—describe grassroots projects in which communities use narrative as a way of exploring what a more just society might look like and what civic engagement means. These compelling accounts of resistance, hope, and vision showcase the power of the storytelling form to generate critique and collective action. Together, these projects demonstrate the contemporary power of stories to stimulate engagement, active citizenship, the pride of identity, and the humility of human connectedness.

Global Voices on the Power of Narrative to Build Community and Make Social Justice Claims

Telling Stories to Change the World

The term "reproductive politics" was coined by feminists in the 1970s to describe contemporary Roe v. Wade-era power struggles over contraception and abortion, adoption and surrogacy, and other satellite issues. Forty years later, questions about reproductive rights are just as complex--and controversial--as they were then. Focusing mainly on the United States, Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know® explores the legal, political, religious, social, ethical, and medical dimensions of this hotly contested arena. Tracing the historical roots of reproductive politics up through the present, Rickie Solinger considers a range of topics from abortion and contraception to health care reform and assisted reproductive technologies. Solinger tackles some of the most contentious questions up for debate today, including the definition of "fetal personhood," and the roles poverty and welfare policy play in shaping reproductive rights. The answers she provides are informative, balanced, and sometimes quite surprising. Offering a wide range of information in an accessible and engaging manner, Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know® orients readers and provides the knowledge necessary to follow the debates in this important and continually evolving field. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

Rickie Solinger

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