The Best Intentions
The Best Intentions

Author: Committee on Unintended Pregnancy

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1995-06-16

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0309556376

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Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnancies--and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescents--are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted. Now, current issues--health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on population--are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts. This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs. The Best Intentions explores problematic definitions--"unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"--and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear. Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care." The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals. May

Who Chooses?
Who Chooses?

Author: Simone M. Caron

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13:

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This book is the first to synthesize the intertwined histories of contraception, sterilization, and abortion in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Caron skillfully blends the local study of reproductive history in the state of Rhode Island into her thorough re-telling of the larger story that played out on the national stage

Family Planning
Family Planning

Author:

Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS CCP - INFO

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 0978856309

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"United States Agency for International Development, Bureau for Global Health, Office of Population and Reproductive Health."

When Abortion Was a Crime
When Abortion Was a Crime

Author: Leslie J. Reagan

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2022-02-22

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0520387422

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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.

On the Pill
On the Pill

Author: Elizabeth Siegel Watkins

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 1998-10-14

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 0801858763

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"In 1968, a popular writer ranked the pill's importance with the discovery of fire and the developments of tool-making, hunting, agriculture, urbanism, scientific medicine, and nuclear energy. Twenty-five years later, the leading British weekly, the Economist, listed the pill as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. The image of the oral contraceptive as revolutionary persists in popular culture, yet the nature of the changes it supposedly brought about has not been fully investigated. After more than thirty-five years on the market, the role of the pill is due for a thorough examination." -- from the Introduction In this fresh look at the pill's cultural and medical history, Elizabeth Siegel Watkins re-examines the scientific and ideological forces that led to its development, the part women played in debates over its application, and the role of the media, medical profession, and pharmaceutical industry in deciding issues of its safety and meaning. Her study helps us not only to understand the contraceptive revolution as such but also to appreciate the misinterpretations that surround it.

Before Roe V. Wade
Before Roe V. Wade

Author: Reva B. Siegel

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9780615648217

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"As the landmark Roe v. Wade decision reaches its 40th anniversary, abortion remains a polarizing topic on America's legal and political landscape. Blending history, culture, and law, Before Roe v. Wade eplores the roots of the conflict, recovering through original documents and first-hand accounts the voices on both sides that helped shape the climate in which the Supreme Court ruled. Originally published in 2010, this new edition includes a new Afterword that explores what the history of conflict before Roe teaches us about the abortion conflict we live with today. Examining the role of social movements and political parties, the authors cast new light on a pivotal chapter in American history and suggest how Roe v. Wade, the case, because Roe v. Wade, the symbol. "--Cover, p. 4.