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The Cost of Choice: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion

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The 12 essays in this book come at the contested issue of abortion from a different point of view than one typically hears in political discourse about abortion. Listening only to partisans debating the issue in political campaigns, one would think that the issue boils down to this: does the fetus's claim to life outweigh the benefits to women and society of safe, legal abortion?. After reading these essays by 12 women intellectuals and professionals, one should question the assumptions underpinning that basic question.

Instead, these women ask a fundamental question, the answer to which is usually assumed, rather than proven: is legal abortion a boon to women? The answer from these 12 is no. Once that assumption is undermined, so too is much of the argument in favor of legalized, widespread abortion.

While pro-lifers will be drawn to this book more naturally than those who are pro-choice, there is something in here to disturb and enlighten people on both sides of the issue.

For pro-lifers, the essayists here make a central point that is often ignored in pro-life rhetoric that it is important to ask what the benefit to women of legalized abortion is. For those who believe that an unborn child has a claim on life, the benefits to the mother of abortion are sometimes written out of the equation. The essayists also recognize that many men and women who are pro-choice take that position because they genuinely believe legalized abortion is good for women. It is to these people of good will that the essays are really addressed. The book will also make pro-lifers realized that 'feminist' is not a dirty word and is not synonymous with being pro-abortion.

For pro-choicers who care about the well-being of women (as opposed to those who are pro-choice for other reasons such as societal benefit or an ideological committment to absolute individual autonomy), this book raises important questions that must be answered, rather than assumed. It should prompt those advocating an absolute right to legal abortion as a fundamental component of women's health to question whether abortion really is a positive for women's health or a negative. After all, if abortion does not actually benefit women, the debate takes on an entirely different tone.

This book also puts to lie the notion that pro-lifers on are a mission to force women into subservience, roll back women's rights and exclude women from the public sphere. This is a feminist a book to the core.

This book is an important contribution to the ongoing abortion debate, and opens a new front for discussion, research and analysis. Those who care about this issue, on both sides, would be well-advised to attend to its arguments.

A solid collection of twelve essays by professional women who are active in the public square. This book includes a version Feminists for Life's president Serrin Foster's brilliant speech "The Feminist Case Against Abortion."

This book is a fine addition to a growing pro-life feminist library, including Prolife Feminism Yesterday & Today (ISBN: 0945819625, soon to be updated); Pro-Life Feminism: Different Voices (ISBN: 0919225225); Swimming Against the Tide: Feminist Dissent on the Issue of Abortion (ISBN: 1851822674); and Real Choices: Listening to Women, Looking for Alternatives to Abortion (ISBN: 1888212071) ...all of which are available through Amazon.com.

Abortion is a violent symptom of numerous systematic and structural economic & social injustices perpetrated against women. Real feminists should not be advocating abortion, but seeking to address abortion's root causes: the lack of practical and social resources for women. If you recognize the intrinsic interrelatedness and interdependence of all humans, you must believe we have a personal and social responsibility to empower women to make life-affirming, nonviolent choices for themselves and their children.

Abortion, we are often told, is a women's issue, and men should just butt out. But given that half of all abortion victims are male, this seems like an odd demand. But if one still insists on a women-only discussion, this book at least will qualify.

This book features twelve women who all think that abortion is far from being pro-women. Instead, they all believe that abortion is basically anti-women, and that it is time women rethink the past three decades of pro-abortion propaganda on the issue.

And they are well qualified to speak on the host of issues associated with the abortion debate. The authors are lawyers, doctors, academics, political scientists and ethicists, all experts in their fields. And all are convinced that women have been sold short by the pro-abortion camp in particular, and the wider feminist movement in general.

In this regard it is interesting to note that the original feminist movement was strongly pro-life. As one of the authors informs us, "Without known exception, the early American feminists condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms". She notes the irony of the fact that the US anti-abortion laws of the latter half of the nineteenth century were the direct results of the advocacy work of the early feminists.

Of course many in the current crop of feminists seem to believe that the right to abortion is the quintessential feminist issue. But as these twelve women argue, that is not necessarily the case.

Indeed, a central theme of these essays is that women have been the big loser in the Sexual Revolution, and that abortion-on-demand is harmful to women. Pro-choice feminists and their allies have assured women that sexual freedom and abortion for any reason would bring them liberation and wholeness. Instead we see bondage and disintegration, argue the authors.

There has been a high price paid by women especially, although all of society has suffered. But women have born the brunt of the broken promises, with many harmful mental, medical and psychological consequences. Entire chapters are devoted to some of these social problems and health risks, and rightly so, because the mainstream media is often quite reluctant to let the truth be told about such complications.

A number of essays look at the very real physical consequences of women who have abortions. The research clearly shows that abortion is associated with an increased long-term risk of breast cancer, pre-term birth, maternal suicide and a host of other medical complications.

The abortion-breast cancer link for example is quite extensively documented. If women were told of just this one possible risk, much harm could be prevented. Indeed, it could mean that many thousands of women might be saved each year.

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese goes so far as to say that abortion is really a "war against women". Another author argues that while women are the big losers, there are several major beneficiaries. Certainly abortionists are getting the benefits: they are getting rich. And men have also benefited: they can simply "love `em and leave `em" and not face any of the consequences, while women are left holding the bag, or the baby.

Another author makes the connection between abortion and the return of eugenics. The push for designer babies and the attempt to weed out any imperfections in our offspring is taking us back to some dark times in recent history. But we seem to have short memories. Thus we are now putting a whole new generation at risk in our search for the perfect baby. Such eugenic activity is clearly of a piece with the abortion mentality.

The cumulative case against abortion as expressed in these essays should be enough for many women to have a rethink. Indeed, many of the authors in this book did just that: many were originally pro-choice, but as they became exposed to the truth of the issue, they had a radical change of mind and heart.

Perhaps other women reading these essays will undergo similar sorts of conversion. For their sakes, as well as for the sake of the unborn, and all of society, it is hoped that this is indeed the case.

this is a quiet, sobering account of abortion's effect on women and society as a whole. It is pro-life in the truest sense- not "anti-choice," as the insipid ranks of the abortion lobby would love to call it, but of a view that realizes that society must be changed from the inside out if abortion is to be minimized and women truly freed. Non-judgmental and heartfelt, this is one piece you won't find advertised by either camp.

Gets a bit dicey by the end (the breast-cancer link is still just speculation), but solid. Best chapter: "the Supreme Court and the Creation of the Two-Dimensional Woman"

Sorry, no white Christian males here... just intelligent women, which is what the abortionists fear most.

This book is excellent.

I read a book recently about women who gave birth in the 40s-50s-60s-before Roe-and about how many of them were sent to maternity homes to hide and then forced to give their babies up for adoption. While reading these women's stories, it struck me how we still have the same problems (women not having any "choice" at all), although now abortion has replaced forced surrendering of newborns. I was so sad reading these women's accounts of having to give up the babies they had just birthed. I now understand that many women abort for the same reasons: pressure from a boyfriend, parents, friends, etc. We still have the same problems. It's maybe just a little easier to hide with abortion since it can be done early before anyone notices a pregnancy. But, that does not mean that the women who abort will not feel similar emotional scars as they age.

New brain research has also made me question minors getting abortions. The new research indicates that the human brain does not complete development until the mid 20s. The last part of the brain to develop is that dealing with long term consequences. This is why many teens are impulsive. With this new knowledge, it seems very scary to be letting teen girls have abortions.

With continuing scientific discoveries and genetic testing, reproductive choice is getting more and more frightening. We can already abort babies that are "not good enough" or abort a boy because we want a girl. Where does it stop? What if we discover a breast cancer gene test for in-utero babies? What about a gay gene? Will it be permissable to abort these babies? In-utero genetic testing + reproductive rights = very scary consequences.

We have already seen from history what can happen when a group of people think they can judge who's lives are worth living, and who's are not. We need to be very careful because with things like sex selection and aborting babies with birth defects like Downs Syndrome, we are sadly on that path again.

This book is a must read for ALL feminists, particularly those who are pro-choice. The argument for abortion has so often been reduced to "it's my body, it's my right" that many people have stopped delving into the multiplicity of issues in the public sphere that the legalization of abortion has left its mark on.

Here you will find erudite and eloquent women discuss the numerous negative effects that abortion has had on women, in particular, and society in general.

The Cost of "Choice" also offers the most lucid and cogent explanation that I have found anywhere explaining the abortion/breast cancer link, or the ABC link. After reading the essay about the ABC link by Dr. Lanfranchi there can be no doubt in anyones mind the causal relationship that abortion has to breast cancer in women. Dr. Lanfranchi also explains to the reader the political reasons that the ABC link is labeled as non-existent by those that wish to see abortion only through rose colored glasses.

If you want the unvarnished truth about the effects that abortion has had on women, then read this book. You will not be disappointed.

This is the title of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's chapter of the book- and I concur with her that abortion is a "war on women." According to Ms. F-G, society has "convinced people that full personhood for women depends upon becoming truly equal to men." Since our "liberation"- we have become more objectified than history can recall. Instead of women celebrating their unique nature, the world has become a place where women are ashamed of themselves and try in vain to be men.

The book is a quick-read overview of abortion with various authors' essays. One of my favorite quotes: "A culture that values the faculties of both intellect and will- that values the human person in the fullness of her dignity- would be one that comes to the assistance of the pregnant woman in crisis, helping her to see beyond her fears, to know of the help available to her, and to understand the nature of that which grows inside her. Such a culture would expect all educated people to have some understanding of fetal development and to value the dignity of the most innocent and helpless beings in the human race."

The Cost of Choice: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion
Very eye-opening book. A must read, we need to be talking about these things. Why are we so afraid of the truth in our culture? Abortion hurts women in many ways. Women, young and old, deserve to know all the potential risk factors in making their choice to have this medical procedure. Let the healing begin.....

The importance of this work is it's ability to help eliminate the untenable notion that a woman cannot hold life sacred, and worthy of protecting, and be a feminist at the same time. To the hackneyed comment about "taliban" in another review I would point out that in the industrialized nations it was the Nazis and Communists who were among the very first to do away with the laws that protected the unborn child's right to life.

This book explores difficult issues that confront women who choose to end their pregnancy. However,the ideological/religious underpinning provided by the editor and the reviewers actually makes this title entirely too biased.
Most of the people ( not all) who are against the exercise of reproductive rights are fundamentalists with their own (rather primitive) take on religion. This book is entirely written and edited by the very same fundamentalists shamelessly mascaraing as independent researchers. Not content to live their own lives, said literalists are trying to impose their primitive views borne out of slavish adherence on Babylonian myths adopted by ancient Hebrews (abortion, Creationism, evolution etc.) on secular society.
We will be living in a highly repressive society if the editors and financial backers of this book will ever have their way.
There is room for a book by women who sincerely struggled with the issue of abortion outside of dogmatic religious view.
This book isn't it.