The resources below present an overview of the topic. These can be a good place to begin your research.
For more advanced researchers, these books (available on campus) highlight the history and challenges of the movement.
Life's Work by
In this "vivid and companionable memoir of a remarkable life" (The New Yorker), an outspoken, Christian reproductive justice advocate and abortion provider reveals his personal and professional journeys in an effort to seize the moral high ground on the question of choice and reproductive justice. Dr. Willie Parker grew up in the Deep South, lived in a Christian household, and converted to an even more fundamentalist form of Christianity as a young man. But upon reading an interpretation of the Good Samaritan in a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he realized that in order to be a true Christian, he must show compassion for all people at all times. In 2009, he stopped practicing obstetrics to focus entirely on providing safe abortions for women who need help the most--often women in poverty and women of color--in the hotbed of the pro-choice debate: the South. He thereafter traded in his private practice and his penthouse apartment in Hawaii for the life of an itinerant abortion provider, becoming one of the few doctors to provide such services in Mississippi and Alabama. In Life's Work, Dr. Willie Parker tells a deeply personal and thought-provoking narrative that illuminates the complex societal, political, religious, and personal realities of abortion in the United States from the unique perspective of someone who performs them and defends the right to do so every day. In revealing his daily battle against mandatory waiting periods and bogus rules, Dr. Parker makes a powerful Christian case for championing reproductive rights. "At a moment when reproductive health and rights are under attack...Dr. Parker's book is a beacon of hope and a call to action" (Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood).
Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book From noted feminist and longtime columnist for The Nation, award-winning author Katha Pollitt's Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights presents a powerful argument for abortion as a moral right and social good. As the Supreme Court is set to overturn the landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide, this urgent, controversial book reframes abortion as a common part of a woman's reproductive life, one that should be accepted as a moral right with positive social implications. Nearly fifty years after the Roe v. Wade ruling, "Abortion" is still a word that is said with outright hostility by many, despite the fact that one in three American women will have terminated at least one pregnancy by menopause. Even those who support a woman's right to an abortion often qualify their support by saying abortion is a "bad thing," an "agonizing decision," making the medical procedure so remote and radioactive that it takes it out of the world of the everyday, turning an act that is normal and necessary into something shameful and secretive. Meanwhile, the rights once upheld by the Supreme Court are threatened to be repudiated and systematically eroded by state laws designed to end abortion outright. Pro reaffirms the priority of a woman's life and health, and discusses why terminating a pregnancy can be a force for good for women, families, and society. It is time, Pollitt argues, that we reclaim the lives and the rights of women and mothers. "A refreshing and comprehensive look at abortion rights...Pro is a passionate plea--and a book that is needed now more than ever." --Salon "Ultimately, Pollitt is arguing not just for reproductive rights but for reproductive justice, which places the right to mother, or not, within the global context of human rights and social and economic justice, inextricable from the fight for universal health insurance, immigration reform and a host of social challenges." --The Chicago Tribune
Radical Reproductive Justice by
This anthology assembles two decades of work initiated by SisterSong Women of Color Health Collective, creators of the human rights-based 'reproductive justice' framework to move beyond polarised pro-choice/pro-life debates. Rooted in Black feminism and built on intersecting identities, this revolutionary framework asserts a woman's right to have children, to not have children, and to parent and provide for the children they have.
The Turnaway Study by
"If you read only one book about democracy, The Turnaway Study should be it. Why? Because without the power to make decisions about our own bodies, there is no democracy." --Gloria Steinem "Dr. Diana Greene Foster brings what is too often missing from the public debate around abortion: science, data, and the real-life experiences of people from diverse backgrounds...This should be required reading for every judge, member of Congress, and candidate for office--as well as anyone who hopes to better understand this complex and important issue." --Cecile Richards, cofounder of Supermajority, former president of Planned Parenthood, and author of Make Trouble A groundbreaking and illuminating look at the state of abortion access in America and the first long-term study of the consequences--emotional, physical, financial, professional, personal, and psychological--of receiving versus being denied an abortion on women's lives. What happens when a woman seeking an abortion is turned away? Diana Greene Foster, PhD, decided to find out. With a team of scientists--psychologists, epidemiologists, demographers, nursing scholars, and public health researchers--she set out to discover the effect of receiving versus being denied an abortion on women's lives. Over the course of a ten-year investigation that began in 2007, she and her team followed a thousand women from more than twenty states, some of whom received their abortions, some of whom were turned away. Now, for the first time, the results of this landmark study--the largest of its kind to examine women's experiences with abortion and unwanted pregnancy in the United States--have been gathered together in one place. Here Foster presents the emotional, physical, and socioeconomic outcomes for women who received their abortion and those who were denied. She analyzes the impact on their mental and physical health, their careers, their romantic lives, their professional aspirations, and even their existing and future children--and finds that women who received an abortion were almost always better off than women who were denied one. Interwoven with these findings are ten riveting first-person narratives by women who share their candid stories. As the debate about abortion rights intensifies, The Turnaway Study offers an in-depth examination of the real-world consequences for women of being denied abortions and provides evidence to refute the claim that abortion harms women. With brilliant synthesis and startling statistics--that thousands of American women are unable to access abortions; that 99% of women who receive an abortion do not regret it five years later--The Turnaway Study is a necessary and revelatory look at the impact of abortion access on people's lives.
