Abortion and Dialogue: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and American Law

"The issues she takes on are crucial―not solely the subject areas of reproductive rights and law, or public policy lenses and judicial impact in women's and children's lives, but also the more difficult and fundamental questions of how these 'hot topics' can be approached so as to make the most of the good will of all and the force of free discussion for social learning. . . . she brings a strong, evolving and distinctive perspective to the discussion." ―Emily Fowler Hartigan

In Abortion and Dialogue, Ruth Colker argues that the state falsely views the woman and the fetus as having conflicting needs when it intervenes in decisions regarding preganancies. Colker's feminist-theological perspective on reproductive health issues encourages both pro-choice and pro-life advocates to consider how the value of life is implicated in discussions of reproduction.

Colker argues that theology can contribute to our understanding if we apply the concepts of love, compassion, and wisdom to problems identified by feminist theory and to actual concrete situations: the impact of abortion regulations on poor female adolescents; the judicial treatment of abortion regulations; state intervention into women's decision-making during pregnancies carried to term. Colker concludes by examining effective and respectful family-planning strategies that truly help women in making reproductive choices.

RUTH COLKER, Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, is the author of Abortion and Dialogue: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and American Law. She has written on feminist theory and abortion in such journals as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Yale Journal on Law and Feminism, Harvard Women's Law Journal, and Columbia Journal on Gender and Law. In addition to her scholarship, she has served as a legal advocate on behalf of women working with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund as well as the ACLU.