Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community - Hardcover

Ginsburg, Faye D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520064925 ISBN 13: 9780520064928

Publisher: University of California Press, 1989

Synopsis

Based on the struggle over a Fargo, North Dakota, abortion clinic, Contested Lives explores one of the central social conflicts of our time. Both wide-ranging and rich in detail, it speaks not simply to the abortion issue but also to the critical role of women’s political activism.

About this title

About the Author

Faye D. Ginsburg is Professor of Anthropology at New York University, where she also directs the Center for Media, Culture, and History.

Reviews

Contested sides of the enduring conflict over abortion and its importance in helping determine women's place in society are presented here by Ginsburg, associate professor of anthropology at New York University. In a scholarly, historically weighted study too specialized for general readers, the author relates the present debate to the changes wrought by economic and cultural developments that engendered modern feminism, along with the impact of legal, medical and political agendas on public attitudes towards abortion. Based on interviews with a pro-life and a pro-choice abortion activist, both of whom claim to represent women's real interests, Ginsburg contends that their viewpoints are largely derived from personal values, background and experiences of transition and difficulties in their own reproductive lives. Although she maintains that activists on both sides share many common concerns, she concludes that abortion remains a challenge to the concept of female gender identity linked to nurturance and domesticity.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

By focusing on one small, localized struggle (in Fargo, N.D.) as it evolved over more than a decade, Ginsburg (anthropology, NYU) has provided an outstanding scholarly study of the abortion conflict. Her meticulous and sympathetic portrayals of the activists on both (or, as she reveals it, several) sides let her raise issues that transcend the "pro-life versus pro-choice" contest, and place the women, and those who would exploit their concerns, into a much broader cultural context. What began as a disputed state referendum campaign escalated into a battle over an abortion clinic, culminating in a social drama that was extended to a national audience via a TV newsmagazine. Her analysis of the role of symbols and metaphors in the propaganda , the competition among the various interest groups, and the life stories of the activists are particularly compelling. Highly recommended for serious readers and academics.
- Beverly Miller, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520064925
• ISBN 13: 9780520064928
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 350