Abby Johnson quit her job in October 2009. That simple act became a national news story because Abby was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas who, after participating in an actual abortion procedure for the first time, walked down the street to join the Coalition for Life. Unplanned is a heart-stopping personal drama of life-and-death encounters, a courtroom battle, and spiritual transformation that speaks hope and compassion into the political controversy that surrounds this issue. Telling Abby’s story from both sides of the abortion clinic property line, this book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the life versus rights debate and helping women who face crisis pregnancies.

Finalist for the Pulitzer PrizeFinalist for the Los Angeles Times Book PrizeA Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2011A Slate Best Book of 2011A Discover Magazine Best Book of 2011"Ms. Hvistendahl is a first-rate reporter and has filled Unnatural Selection with gripping details.... There is so much to recommend." --Wall Street Journal "An important ... bracing work of investigative reporting ... As news of these (gender) imbalances has spread, many have blamed ancient preferences: India's patriarchal social systems, for instance, or Chinese beliefs that only boys provide for ageing parents. Hvistendahl's research puts the lie to these lazy claims." --Financial Times "Massively well-documented.... A disturbing, engrossing book." --Washington Post "It might be the most important book written about women in years." --Slate

This is a no-holds-barred response to the liberal and conservative retreat from an assertive, activist, and socially transformative civil rights agenda of recent years--using a black feminist lens and the issue of  the impact of recent legislation, social policy, and welfare "reform" on black women's--especially poor black women's--control over their bodies' autonomy and their freedom to bear and raise children with respect and dignity in a society whose white mainstream is determined to demonize, even criminalize their lives.   It gives its readers a cogent legal and historical argument for a radically new , and socially transformative, definition of  "liberty" and "equality" for the American polity from a black feminist perspective.The author is able to combine the most innovative and radical thinking on several fronts--racial theory, feminist, and legal--to produce a work that is at once history and political treatise.  By using the history of how American law--beginning with slavery--has treated the issue of the state's right  to interfere with the black woman's body, the author explosively and effectively makes the case for the legal redress to the racist implications of current policy with regards to 1) access to and coercive dispensing of birth control to poor black women 2) the criminalization of parenting by poor black women who have used drugs 3) the stigmatization and devaluation of poor black mothers under the new welfare provisions, and 4) the differential access to and disproportionate spending of social resources on the new reproductive technologies used by wealthy white couples to insure genetically related offspring.The legal redress of the racism inherent in current  American law and policy in these matters, the author argues in her last chapter, demands and should lead us to adopt a new standard and definition of the liberal theory of "liberty" and "equality" based on the need for, and the positive role of government in fostering, social as well as individual justice.

Issues of Life and Death such as abortion, assisted suicide, capital punishment and others are among the most contentious in many societies. Whose rights are protected? How do these rights and protections change over time and who makes those decisions? Based on the author’s award-winning and hugely popular undergraduate course at the University of Texas, this book explores these questions and the fundamentally sociological processes which underlie the quest for morality and justice in human societies. The Author’s goal is not to advocate any particular moral "high ground" but to shed light on the social movements and social processes which are at the root of these seemingly personal moral questions. This book is also broken down into four smaller How Ethical Systems Change volumes: Abortion and neonatal care: www.routledge.com/9780415504492/ Lynching and capital punishment: www.routledge.com/9780415505192/ Eugenics, the Final Solution, and Bioethics www.routledge.com/9780415501620/ Tolerable Suffering and Assisted Dying: www.routledge.com/9780415505161/  

In The Pink Pagoda, Dr. James Garrow tells two stories: his personal involvement in helping rescue more than 36,000 Chinese baby girls from death, and the tragic story of a widely used and malicious cultural practice that crosses borders and spans centuries. Transitioning from reluctant participant in an off-the-books adoption program to a visible champion for the rights of these babies whose parents wished to "set them aside," Garrow's story parallels our own. Most Westerners are only vaguely aware of the extent to which China's one-baby-per-household restriction has played out in that country and around the world and what they can do to stop it.

Dr Nathanson's deeply personal memoir of what led a lifelong atheist and abortion crusader first to the pro-life cause,

As politicians, citizens, and families continue the raging national debate on whether it's proper to end human life in the womb, resources like Randy Alcorn's Prolife Answers to Prochoice Arguments have proven invaluable. With over 75,000 copies in print, this revised and updated guide offers timely information and inspiration from a "sanctity of life" perspective. Real answers to real questions about abortion appear in logical and concise form. The final chapter -- "Fifty Ways to Help Unborn Babies and Their Mothers"-- is worth the price of this book alone!

In 1960, the FDA approved the oral contraceptive that would come to be known as "the pill." Within a few years, millions of women were using it. At a time when the population was surging, many believed that the drug would help eradicate poverty around the globe, ensure happy and stable marriages, and liberate women. America and the Pill reveals the ways in which the pill did and did not fulfill these utopian dreams, while also chronicling the stories of the creators, testers, and users who ultimately made the pill their own.

So much is at stake in the abortion debate. If pro-choicers are right, precious freedoms are in jeopardy. If pro-lifers are right, innocent children are being robbed of their most basic freedom—life. Though bumpersticker slogans prevail, the facts are rarely presented. We need clear and credible answers to the central questions of the abortion debate. For those who have had abortions or are currently considering one, for pro-choicers and fence-straddlers alike, Why Pro-Life? provides answers to these questions in a concise, straightforward, and nonabrasive manner.Head: Human Life Begins…When? No issue is more divisive or troubling than abortion. Many believe that we have to choose between helping women and helping children. This book shows how critical it is that we help both. In a concise, non-abrasive fashion, Randy Alcorn offers compassionate, factual answers to the central issues of the abortion debate. [Insert Sarah Marie Switzer image] An award-winning photo of an operation on Sarah Marie Switzer, a twenty-four-week unborn child with spina bifida. Sarah, here grasping a surgeon’s finger, was reinserted into her mother’s womb and born two months later, nine weeks premature. [Insert 3-D Real-Time ultrasound image] A 3-D ultrasound photo of a baby 21 weeks after conception—just over halfway through the pregnancy. Modern technology offers a window to the womb that is changing the face of the abortion debate. Story Behind the BookThere have always been likable people who hold to wrong positions on ethical issues—including slavery and anti-Semitism. Sincere people can be wrong and often are. We need a clear presentation of what is true. Randy Alcorn has intervened for the unborn and their mothers—and at great personal cost. In writing this book on one of today’s critical issues, he has endeavored to lay out well-supported facts on why the pro-life position is right and true when it comes to valuing human life.