Abortion: Between Freedom and Necessity - Softcover

"British journalist and feminist Janet Hadley has composed a stunningly comprehensive work that argues that abortion should be legal, accessible, affordable, and accepted the world over. ... [Her] numerous arguments make sense and are presented in a style that is brisk and flowing, one that turns the many statistics and laws she cites into an essay, enlightening to read." -Publishers Weekly "[A] thoughtful survey of abortion politics worldwide. ... Hadley takes us through this moral maze without ever wavering in her political clarity." --New Statesman "This extraordinary, gripping, forthright book could well have been subtitled 'Nearly all you might need or want to know about the abortion rights controversy in the U.S> and around the world.' ... If you have time to read only one new book this year on abortion rights this year, this is the one." --Voice of Reason The Newsletter of Americans for Religious Liberty "Although abortion is legal in the U.S. and most of Europe, it continues to dominate political debate and national policies. This valuable book makes a major contribution to understanding aborition politics by analyzing not only the U.S. and Ireland, where such politics have been most bitter, but also by examining these politics in other countries. ... Answering critics who maintain that abortion is immoral, Hadley argues that denial of abortion infringes on women's moral rights to liberty and self-determination. ... [T]he author demonstrates that while the right to abortion is indeed about a woman's right to control her body and her life, it is also a matter of reproductive health. Women should not have to die because they have sex." -- Choice

Abortion is still not talked about. Few women admit to having one. It is too personal, and it is still taboo. Yet this intimate personal issue has become sensationally and bewilderingly public, it has even brought down governments, a paradox which the author found intriguing enough to start her on the project of this book. In this worldwide survey of abortion politics, Janet Hadley argues that abortion should be legal, accessible, affordable and accepted the world over. This edition contains an epilogue that discusses changes and events that occurred since the publication in 1996.