Dangerous pregnancies: mothers, disability and abortion in modern America

Abstract

Reviews the book, Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disability and Abortion in Modern America by Leslie J. Reagan (2010). Author does an admirable job out outlining a social history of the epidemic and its intersections with motherhood and abortion rights, though does less well with her analysis of media representations of disability or the implications of the epidemic on real social inclusion for disabled people. Most critically, author consistently elides the elephant in the room, which is that women’s access to abortion was in this case accomplished in great part because of normative assumptions that certain kinds of people ‘naturally’ have no right to live. Because author fails to take these assumptions on, author not only misses a critical opportunity through which to bridge the solitude between Feminist Studies and Disability Studies, but author fails to engage with the core ethical dilemmas issues that underscore the conflicts between the two disciplines and this particular, shared historical moment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)