Volume 49, Number 6 · April 11, 2002
How Are Women Doing?
By Andrew Hacker
Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States
by Rickie Solinger
Hill and Wang, 290 pp., $25.00
Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History
by N.E.H. Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer
University Press of Kansas, 315 pp., $35.00; $15.95 (paper)
Out of Wedlock: Causes and Consequences of Nonmarital Fertility
edited by Lawrence L. Wu and Barbara Wolfe
Russell Sage, 412 pp., $39.95
The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men
by Christina Hoff Sommers
Touchstone, 251 pp., $13.00 (paper)
The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls
by Colette Dowling
Random House, 318 pp., $13.95 (paper)
'Choice' has been an effective watchword for those who would allow women to decide whether to continue a pregnancy—especially since it implies that the alternative is forcing people to have children they do not want. In fact, many women who become pregnant have chosen to do so; they are happy they have become pregnant and hope a birth will result. Even so, those who feel this way are not typical, as one might think. A survey of pregnant women by the National Center for Health Statistics found that almost 40 percent were not elated about their condition, and most in this group did not want it to proceed.[1] If these women are also to have a choice, abortion services must be widely available.
Review, 4963 words
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