On the Front Lines of the Abortion War, from El Salvador to Oklahoma
November 15, 2017
A law professor brings her learned perspective and anecdotal evidence to one of the world's most controversial topics.A former Planned Parenthood volunteer, Oberman (Santa Clara Univ. School of Law; When Mothers Kill, 2008) admits her pro-abortion rights stance, but her short book rarely veers toward polemic. Instead, she shows how those on both sides tend to marginalize the women whose lives are already marginalized and that, for those women, "abortion's legal status hardly mattered." The author predicts that if the anti-abortion movement continues to gain momentum, laws against abortion won't stop them or even decrease them. Her approach is somewhat scattershot, but she focuses first on El Salvador, which "has the strictest abortion laws in the world." Since the passage of an absolute ban in 1998, the abortion rate has not dropped; enforcement is selective and charges are rare, mainly brought upon women in dire circumstances, many of whom have suffered a miscarriage or lack of prenatal care but haven't submitted to the abortion procedure. Furthermore, writes Oberman, "the rate of abortion in countries with restrictive abortion laws far exceeds that of countries with far more liberal laws, as in the United States." She suggests that those campaigning hardest to reverse the liberalization of abortion policy are mainly engaged in moral posturing, knowing that the procedure they condemn will not decrease but will be increasingly stigmatized and driven underground--or to the internet, where drugs that can terminate a pregnancy are far safer than the old cliche of the back-alley abortionist. Perhaps the most illuminating part of the book concerns the compassion the author found at Birth Choice, which offers a safe haven for women who keep their babies and where there is "no shame, just love." There she heard that there are "two kinds of pro-life people. People who are pro-life and people who are antiabortion...and the antiabortion folks are really difficult to work with."A brief but sensible entry in the abortion wars.
COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from November 15, 2017
Oberman (Katharine and George Alexander Professor of Law, Santa Clara Univ. Sch. of Law; When Mothers Kill) uses her extensive knowledge of the legal system and the ethics of issues such as pregnancy and motherhood to disrupt easy narratives based on artificial binary oppositions. With this debut, she has made an incredible effort to allow all the people she interviews to have their own voices; she uses terms they self-select (e.g., pro-choice and pro-life) rather than taking a position, which adds to the stories she shares. Taken as a whole, the case studies compiled here demonstrate the need to examine the legal battles surrounding abortion in a way that resists an either/or framework. Ultimately, by juxtaposing El Salvador's unequivocal ban on abortion with Oklahoma's prolife stance, Oberman sheds light on the systemic impact that criminalizing abortion has on women's social, economic, and physical selves--and what a world without Roe v. Wade would look like. VERDICT For anyone interested in a fresh, balanced perspective on abortion law and women's rights.--Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin Coll. and Extension, Madison
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.