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Description
'A provocative and important book that every pro-choice advocate should read.'
Sinéad Kennedy, Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment
When it comes to abortion, today's liberal climate has produced a common sense that is both pro-choice and anti-abortion. The public are fed an unchanging version of what the abortion choice entails and how women experience it. While it would prove highly unpopular to insist that all pregnant women should carry their pregnancy to term, the idea that abortion could or should be a happy experience for women is virtually unspeakable.
In this careful and intelligent work, Erica Millar shows how the emotions of abortion are constructed in sharp contrast to the emotional position occupied by motherhood – the unassailable placeholder for women's happiness. Through an exposition of the cultural and political forces that continue to influence the decisions women make about their pregnancies – forces that are synonymous with the rhetoric of choice – Millar argues for a radical reinterpretation of women's freedom.
Table of Contents
1. The Politics of Choice
2. Happy Choices
3. The Grief of Choice
4. Shameful Choices
5. The Nation's Choice?
Conclusion: A Viable Abortion
Product details
Published | Dec 15 2017 |
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Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 348 |
ISBN | 9781786991331 |
Imprint | Zed Books |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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An exciting and unique addition to the literature on reproductive choice. It challenges the framing of abortion across the political spectrum and throughout the modern world, and forces a reappraisal of our thinking. Furthermore – it's a darn good read!
Ann Furedi, Chief Executive, British Pregnancy Advisory Service
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Offers a carefully crafted bundle of feminist ideas that enable new insights into the politics of choice. Invaluable reading for students, scholars, and abortion activists seeking to deploy feminist analysis in service of the urgent need to enable and improve access to abortion for all who need it.
Barbara Baird, Flinders University
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An important contribution to the literature on abortion. Millar's evocative book critically examines political and movement discourses, with attention to gender, race, class, and nation, exposing the anti-abortion framings that permeate all sides of the debate.
Katrina Kimport, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, UCSF
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The meanings ascribed by society to women's reproductive decisions do not necessarily portray our actual emotions. Erica's book celebrates that abortion, like childbirth, can be a joyful experience when achieving reproductive justice through human rights.
Loretta Ross, co-founder, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
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In this thoughtful and well-written book, Erica Millar deconstructs the emotional discourses surrounding abortion. A sophisticated and timely work that should be essential reading for all those interested or working in the area of abortion, as well as activists and academics.
Pam Lowe, Aston University
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This compelling dissection of the emotional common sense of abortion offers a crucial step towards rejecting the "awfulization” of abortion. Ending a pregnancy is revealed for what it has always been: an inevitable and normal part of women's lives.
Sally Sheldon, Kent University

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