Accessing Abortion - (Families, Law, and Society) by Mindy Jane Roseman & Rachel Rebouché (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Explores the global landscape of abortion law reform

In many countries, barriers to abortion access--legal, cultural, or practical--have been dismantled in places as diverse as Mexico, Kenya, Thailand, and Ireland. Yet, in a few countries--the United States and Poland to name two--obstacles to abortion abound. Why? Why do some countries find abortion access a publicly polarizing issue and others a relatively uncontroversial health and family decision? Why has abortion access been a rallying point for progressive political organizing and, in others, the site of democratic backsliding?

In Accessing Abortion, expert academics and lawyers look to countries that have passed permissive abortion laws to make visible how legislation both settled and stirred conflict in politically-divided environments. By comparing the process of enacting laws in these countries, the volume spotlights current social mobilization for and against abortion rights. At the same time, the volume assesses how these varied and comparative national developments unfolded in an international and transnational context where the floor of what countries can do is set by international human rights norms. Ultimately, this collection aims to show how law and public policy functions to facilitate both permissive and restrictive abortion law reform, and how that reform then changes the delivery of abortion services. Providing a sustained comparative analysis of the costs and benefits of legislating and/or judicializing abortion rights across the globe, Accessing Abortion assesses what is missing from contemporary conversations on reproductive justice.

Review Quotes

"Accessing Abortion is a groundbreaking comparative examination of global abortion laws in a post-Dobbs world. The volume illuminates the interconnection between laws, health systems and social movements across many countries. The book is an indispensable resource for scholars of law, gender, and human rights."--Sital Kalandry, author of Women's Human Rights and Migration: Sex-selective Abortion Laws in India and the United States"

"Accessing Abortion is a must-read for anyone thinking about abortion rights today. This book offers a sustained analysis of comparative abortion law that is rare and, for that reason, invaluable. The volume offers crucial context for contemplating the present, and future, of abortion rights in the United States and around the world."--Khiara M. Bridges, UC Berkeley School of Law

"Accessing Abortion is more important than ever before. There is much to learn in this field through comparative examination of reproductive rights and abortion access throughout the world."--Michele Goodwin, Georgetown Law

"This multi-authored volume is a must read for those wanting to learn about what countries are or could be doing to facilitate access to rights-affirming abortion care. It makes sense of the converging and diverging trends regarding various pathways to such care, including through clinical, telehealth and self-managed models."--Rebecca Cook, co-editor of Abortion Law in Transnational Perspectives

About the Author

Mindy Jane Roseman (Editor)
Mindy Jane Roseman is Director of the Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women's Rights at Yale Law School and co-editor of Beyond Virtue and Vice: Rethinking Human Rights and Criminal Law.

Rachel Rebouché (Editor)
Rachel Rebouché is the Kean Family Dean and Peter J. Liacouras Professor of Law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law and co-author of Governance Feminism: An Introduction.