Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States [Hardcover]

Rickie Solinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0809097028 | ISBN-13: 978-0809097029 | Edition: 1st

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, advocates of legal abortion mostly used the term rights when describing their agenda. But after Roe v. Wade, their determination to develop a respectable, nonconfrontational movement encouraged many of them to use the word choice--an easier concept for people weary of various rights movements. At first the distinction in language didn't seem to make much difference-the law seemed to guarantee both. But in the years since, the change has become enormously important.

In Beggars and Choosers, Solinger shows how historical distinctions between women of color and white women, between poor and middle-class women, were used in new ways during the era of "choice." Politicians and policy makers began to exclude certain women from the class of "deserving mothers" by using the language of choice to create new public policies concerning everything from Medicaid funding for abortions to family tax credits, infertility treatments, international adoption, teen pregnancy, and welfare. Solinger argues that the class-and-race-inflected guarantee of "choice" is a shaky foundation on which to build our notions of reproductive freedom. Her impassioned argument is for reproductive rights as human rights--as a basis for full citizenship status for women.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States is a thorough feminist history of public policy on abortion since Roe v. Wade, as well as a reconsideration of recent political strategy. Rickie Solinger's third book on reproductive rights hinges on a crucial semantic shift in the 1970s from "abortion rights" to the softer, less direct "choice" and "pro-choice," itself an attempt to shake off the awkward "pro-abortion" tag. While "rights" are undeniable, Solinger asserts, "choice" is a market-driven concept. "Historical distinctions between women of color and white women, between poor and middle-class women, have been reproduced and institutionalized in the "era of choice," she continues, "in part by defining some groups of women as good choice makers, some as bad."

Solinger also advances a troubling economic thesis about adoption, defined roughly as "the transfer of babies from women of one social classification to women in a higher social classification or group." Bracing and well-researched, Solinger's arguments should be considered by anyone working for women's and children's rights. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly

Feminists need a paradigm shift, argues Solinger (Wake Up Little Susie;, The Abortionist), away from the post-Roe v. Wade concept of "choice" and back to the '60s concept of "rights," based on the approach of the civil rights movement, which argued that all citizens were entitled to vote, for instance, regardless of class status. "Choice" evokes a marketplace model of consumer freedom, she explains, while rights are privileges to which one is justly and irrevocably entitled as a human being. The shift from the language of rights to that of choice was deliberate, aimed at reducing the federal welfare tab and increasing the pool of adoptable children, which began to diminish after the early 1970s, Solinger argues. Once the pill and legal abortion were available, poor women could be considered "bad choice-makers" if they kept having babies they couldn't afford hardly the government's responsibility. (Never mind, Solinger observes, that many poor women can't afford either option and might want children, just as middle-class women do.) Is this progress? No, Solinger writes: "women with inadequate resources... must... have the right to determine for themselves whether or not to be mothers." With its crisp, jargon-free prose and copious footnotes, Solinger's reexamination of those twin bogeys the Back Alley Butcher and the Welfare Queen is a provocative read for any modern feminist.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition (September 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809097028
• ISBN-13: 978-0809097029
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,788,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explores the changing language and evolving law, January 9, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States (Hardcover)

How do the politics of choice shape issues and laws surrounding adoption, abortion and welfare in this country? Rickie Solinger's Beggars And Choosers explores the changing language and evolving law since Roe V. Wade, examining historical distinctions between ethnic and social classes and how new politics and issues influence concepts of choice. An eye-opening presentation of how one woman's choice is another's burden.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious project but falls short in some places, July 12, 2002

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States (Hardcover)

Impressed by her earlier work in "Wake Up Little Susie" I purchased Ms. Solinger's reccent work with anticipation of equally dynamic thought. In this work, she suggests herself and other feminists have failed to permanently secure public policy victories previously gained because of replacement of "rights" with choice in the name of political expidiency.

Within the context of "choice" freedom is merited out to those groups of women that meet the dominant society's preferences. Race and ecconomic status have been used by politicians and political pundits to divide women from eachother---and most importantly, from being recognized as full citizens under the law.

The book's interweaving of abortion access, adequate welfare provisions, and ethical adoption is admirable, but it stands to be overshaddowed by critical ommissions and simplifications.

Identifying herself as a pro-choice woman of the baby boom generation, Solinger then audaciously claims the "Back Alley Butcher" was a PR creation, since conditions without legal abortion were never as bad as fellow feminists had suggested. Charging the phrase was rooted in political expediency, she somehow overlooks that a nation allowing women to be slaughtered and maimed wholesale in lieu of competent medical care can be easily seen to wage war on the very right of women to be treated as human beings and citizens.

This text gives the impression Solinger did not actually bother to test her political theory (adopted for whatever reason) against the gargantuan presence of illegal-abortion related injury and fatality statistics. Even though she has repeatedly reminded the reader of her staunchly pro-choice credentials, the information in this portion of the book sounds like an anti-reproductive rights broad side and therefore actually undercuts her own argument.

It is profoundly difficult to heed Solinger's call for a radical feminist overhaul of public policy when misinformation from the very classist and racist forces she opposes are held as sound historical research. Prior to the legalization of abortion, poor women of color were more likely to die from illegal procedures than their white affluent sisters.

In conclusion, this book would be acceptable when used in conjunction with a medium-sized reading list, but should never be studied as a single text on reproductive public policy.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a real eye opener, March 15, 2002

By 

Caren (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States (Hardcover)

I consider myself pretty aware when it comes to reprodcutive rights issues, but after reading "Begger & Chooser" I realized that there was a lot I didn't know.

I think Solinger does an amazing job of presenting a historical account of how the the politics of choice have moved from a rights based issue to a consumer issue. But, I was a bit frustrated and disappointed that she didn't offer any ideas of how these problem can and should be addressed.