Anti-Abortion Activism in the UK

Pam Lowe is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Policy at Aston University. She has researched and written extensively in the area of women’s reproductive and sexual health, with a particular interest in pregnancy, abortion and early parenting.Sarah-Jane Page is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University. Her research focuses on religion and its interaction with sexuality and gender issues. She has specifically worked on projects examining religion, youth and sexuality and women priests in the Church of England.

• Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Opposition to Abortion: A UK History Chapter 3. Understanding Anti-abortion Activism as Lived Religion Chapter 4. The Worldviews of Anti-abortion Activists Chapter 5. Ultra-sacrificial Motherhood and the ‘Harms’ of Abortion Chapter 6. Foetal Stories Chapter 7. Being an Activist: Material Religion, Embodiment, and Spatiality Chapter 8. The Pro-choice Response: Counterdemonstrations Chapter 9. Abortion Cultures Chapter 10. Conclusion Appendix 1. The Research Journey

Although this book is primarily UK focused; I implore US readers not to let this deter you as there is a great deal to be learned. To begin with, although many have written extensively about the relationship between religiosity and anti-abortion activism, Lowe and Page provide a brilliantly original and sharply-focused articulation of this activism as an invocation of “lived religion,” which is ritualized in the public zone outside of reproductive health clinics. With great acumen, their characterization of these engagements as the creation of sacred spaces devoted to the ideals of ultra-sacrificial motherhood provides non-geographically specific insights into the extent to which religious beliefs permeate the effort to turn “abortion-minded” women towards motherhood. At the same time, however, the authors also stress the importance of recognizing national contexts. In this regard, I must confess to being rather astounded to read about some of the critical contrasts between the UK and US contexts, particularly with respect to how abortion is more a matter of private conscience in the former rather than target of righteous conservative lawmakers as in the US. Importantly, this contextualization offers potentially new and productive ways of seeing and conceptualizing that which is familiar. I also want to commend Lowe and Page for their clear and highly comprehensible writing style. No terse overly-academic language here. This makes the book an invaluable and appealing read for multiple audiences, including academics, students, activists, policy-makers, and the interested public.