Making Women Pay - by Rachel Roth (Paperback)

About the Book

Once backed primarily by anti-abortion activists, fetal rights claims are now promoted by a wide range of interest groups in American society. Government and corporate policies to define and enforce fetal rights have become commonplace. These...

Book Synopsis

Once backed primarily by anti-abortion activists, fetal rights claims are now promoted by a wide range of interest groups in American society. Government and corporate policies to define and enforce fetal rights have become commonplace. These developments affect all women--pregnant or not--because women are considered "potentially pregnant" for much of their lives. In her powerful and important book, Rachel Roth brings a new perspective to the debate over fetal rights. She clearly delineates the threat to women's equality posed by the new concept of "maternal-fetal conflict," an idea central to the fetal rights movement in which women and fetuses are seen as having interests that are diametrically opposed. Roth begins by placing fetal rights politics in historical and comparative context and by tracing the emergence of the notion of fetal rights. Against a backdrop of gripping stories about actual women, she reviews the difficulties fetal rights claims create for women in the areas of employment, health care, and drug and alcohol regulation. She looks at court cases and state legislation over a period of two decades beginning in 1973, the year of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Her exhaustive research shows how judicial decisions and public policies that grant fetuses rights tend to displace women as claimants, as recipients of needed services, and ultimately as citizens. When a corporation, medical authority, or the state asserts or accepts rights claims on behalf of a fetus, the usual justification involves improving the chance of a healthy birth. This strategy, Roth persuasively argues, is not necessary to achieve the goal of a healthy birth, is often counterproductive to it, and always undermines women's equal standing.

Review Quotes

Making Women Pay is a small but powerful book that forces the reader to make a significant paradigm shift.... An extremely well-researched and comprehensive examination of policy and law.... Rachel Roth has written a book that should be required reading for health professionals dealing with women and their fetuses, politicians and legislators who hold a woman's liberty in their hands, and bioethicists who are asked to consult on many of these complicated issues.... I would add, we can't afford not to read this book!

Making Women Pay is an outstanding book.

Against a backdrop of gripping stories about actual women's legal experiences... this book reveals how judicial decisions and public policies that grant fetal rights tend to displace women's rights.... Comprehensive.

Roth's scrupulously researched book... documents an assault on women's rights waged in the name of fetal rights.... Highly recommended at all levels.

About the Author

Rachel Roth is a Research Fellow at Ibis Reproductive Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts.