Abortion and Dialogue

RUTH COLKER, Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, is the author of Abortion and Dialogue: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and American Law. She has written on feminist theory and abortion in such journals as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Yale Journal on Law and Feminism, Harvard Women's Law Journal, and Columbia Journal on Gender and Law. In addition to her scholarship, she has served as a legal advocate on behalf of women working with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund as well as the ACLU.

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTSINTRODUCTION: ABORTION ADN DIALOGUEPART ONE FEMINISM AND THEOLOGYCHAPTER ONE Aspirations: An Authentic Self Embedded in Love, Compassion, and WisdomCHAPTER TWO The Critique: The Problems of Consciousness and Sexual ObjectificationPART TWO WOMENS' VOICECHAPTER THREE TestimonialsCHAPTER FOUR Empirical DataPART THREECHAPTER FIVE An Equality Perspective: Anti-Subordination Above ALlCHAPTER SIX Roe v. WadeCHAPTER SEVEN Webster v. Reproductive HealthServices: Where's the Feminist Argument?CHAPTER EIGHT MATERNITY CASESAFTERWORD TOWARD CHOICE AND LIFEAPPENDIXTABLE OF CASESINDEX

"This is feminist scholarship at its best: interdisciplinary, passionate, personal, and political. This book is more original than its title suggests. Although other works, e.g., Laurence Tribe's Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (CH, Dec'90), Faye Ginsberg's Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community (1989), Mary Ann Glendon's Abortion and Divorce in Western Law (CH, Feb'88), and Rights Talk (1991), have noted how the absolutism of the abortion debate thwarts the discovery of common ground, none have so sensitively appreciated the concerns of both sides and so eloquently suggested an alternative theory as Colker (Tulane Univ.). She crafts a feminist—theological perspective based on the conception of an authentic self that moves toward the aspirations of love, compassion, and wisdom. When these aspirations are applied to abortion politics, problems within both movements are revealed. How can pro—choicers be so disrepectful of concerns for life? How can pro—lifers ignore the realities of women's lives? Colker then shows a way out of the thicket by utilizing an equality framework guided by the three aspirations. Both controversial and inspiring, this volume is highly recommended for all libraries. —S. BehuniaFebruary 1993"—Long, Le Moyne College