2022.06.21关于堕胎权辩论的最佳书籍

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Economist Reads | Abortion
The best books to explain America’s debate on abortion rights
Four recommendations from our American social affairs correspondent
TOPSHOT - Anti-abortion activists are seen outside of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 15, 2022. - A draft opinion leaked in May would have the conservative majority on the nine-member court overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision allowing nationwide access to abortion. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Jun 21st 2022 (Updated Jun 25th 2022)

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This article is part of our Summer reads series. Visit our collection to discover “The Economist reads” guides, guest essays and more seasonal distractions.

Editor’s note: On June 24th a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court voted to overrule the constitutional right to an abortion, which had been guaranteed since 1973 in Roe v Wade.

After nearly half a century the Supreme Court seems likely to overturn its most famous ruling, Roe v Wade. A right to abortion, previously established at the federal level, could be handed instead to individual states to decide upon. It is likely that in roughly half of the states, largely ones where Republicans dominate, women will lose the right. Comparatively uncontentious at the time it was decided, Roe has had an extraordinarily divisive effect on American politics. Why, when it is a settled matter in most of the rich world, has abortion remained such a controversial issue in America? These four books help to answer that question.


When Abortion was a Crime. By Leslie Reagan. University of California Press; 432 pages; $29.95 and £24

“There would be no history of illegal abortion to tell without the continuing demand for abortion from women, regardless of law.” So Leslie Reagan, a professor of history, law, gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, begins her study of the period when abortion was illegal in America: 1867 to 1973. Yet some of the book’s most fascinating revelations come in her description of the years before, when abortion was extremely common and largely uncontroversial. Women often used herbs for “restoring the menses” before “quickening”, when a fetus’s first kicks are felt. The legal acceptance of this practice, “tacitly assumed that women had a basic right to bodily integrity,” Dr Reagan writes. The anti-abortion campaign that followed, “anti-feminist to its core”, abandoned such thinking. The criminalisation of abortion in the middle of the 20th century was particularly brutal. Yet still women demanded abortion. And so they will if Roe is overturned.

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Defenders of the Unborn. By Daniel Williams. Oxford University Press; 400 pages; $29.95 and £26.49

Anti-abortion activism in America is today strongly associated with the Christian right. It was not always so. In “Defenders of the Unborn”, Daniel Williams argues that it began as a progressive cause. He uses pro-lifers’ own words—in letters, journals, church newsletters—to illustrate some truths now largely forgotten. Democrats were once broadly opposed to abortion while many conservatives supported it. Many early pro-lifers saw the unborn deserving protection alongside the impoverished and weak. Catholic anti-abortionists often argued that the state’s protection of life should stretch from conception to the end of life and include support for poor women and federally funded childcare. Others were concerned that the government would use abortion to control the African-American population. “Abortion is advocated as a way of reducing the number of illegitimate children and reducing the welfare rolls,” the Louisiana Right to Life Association declared in 1972. “Who do you think abortionists have in mind?” In a time of polarisation this is an especially illuminating book.


Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v Wade to the present. By Mary Ziegler. Cambridge University Press; 332 pages; $29.99 and £22.99

America’s abortion war is often described as a clash of rights, between those of pregnant woman and fetus. Yet much of the legal battle has been fought at a lowlier level, focusing on the costs and benefits of abortion and regulations that restrict it. In “Abortion and the Law in America” Mary Ziegler, a legal historian, describes how, after the Supreme Court ruling, anti-abortionists moved quickly and strategically to focus on incremental restrictions designed to hollow out the right the ruling enshrines. In turn, abortion-rights activists emphasised the benefits of abortion, especially for poor women. They have argued for its health benefits, prompting pro-lifers to claim that abortion can be gravely injurious. It seems that every aspect of abortion has been argued over in detail over the past half-century, from surgical techniques to financial costs. The process has helped push the two sides further apart while rewarding vested interests on both, Ms Ziegler argues in her impressively dispassionate style. And the end of Roe will “simply trigger a new round of fighting”.

The Family Roe: An American story. By Joshua Prager. W.W. Norton and Company; 672 pages; $35 and £25

Joshua Prager, a journalist, spent more than a decade reporting on the life of Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, plaintiff in the landmark abortion case. And it shows. Using letters, interviews and Supreme Court documents “The Family Roe” paints an extraordinarily detailed portrait of the woman whose case sparked America’s most famous ruling. Though she became a poster child for the abortion-rights movement Ms McCorvey was a singularly bad one. For one thing, she never had an abortion: her third child was born before Roe got to the Supreme Court. Later, she converted to the pro-life cause and was filmed being baptised on national TV before reneging on all that shortly before her death. Even her defence lawyer regretted choosing Ms McCorvey as a plaintiff. She was an unreliable narrator to boot, and Mr Prager’s book is an attempt to set the record straight after so many accounts of her life had muddled truth and fiction. What relevance does Ms McCorvey’s messy story really have to the abortion issue? At the very least it offers a reminder that there are few easy or simple truths. ■




经济学家》读后感 | 堕胎
解释美国关于堕胎权辩论的最佳书籍
我们的美国社会事务通讯员为您推荐四本书
TOPSHOT - 2022年6月15日，在华盛顿特区的美国最高法院外，看到反堕胎活动人士。- 5月份泄露的一份意见书草案将使这个由9名成员组成的法院中的保守派多数推翻罗伊诉韦德案，即1973年允许全国范围内进行堕胎的里程碑式决定。(Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
2022年6月21日（2022年6月25日更新）。


这篇文章是我们夏季读物系列的一部分。请访问我们的收藏，以发现 "经济学人读物 "指南、特邀文章和更多季节性的分心。

编者按：6月24日，最高法院以5比4的多数票否决了宪法规定的堕胎权，该权利自1973年的罗伊诉韦德案以来一直得到保障。

经过近半个世纪，最高法院似乎有可能推翻其最著名的裁决--罗伊诉韦德案。以前在联邦一级确立的堕胎权，可能会被交给各个州来决定。很可能在大约一半的州，主要是共和党人占主导地位的州，妇女将失去这一权利。相对而言，罗氏案在裁决时没有争议，但它对美国政治产生了极大的分歧。为什么在大多数富裕国家，堕胎是一个既定的问题，而在美国却仍然是一个有争议的问题？这四本书有助于回答这个问题。


当堕胎是一种犯罪。作者：Leslie Reagan。加州大学出版社；432页；29.95美元和24英镑

"如果没有妇女对堕胎的持续需求，就不会有非法堕胎的历史可言，不管法律如何。伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校的历史、法律、性别和妇女研究教授莱斯利-里根这样开始她对美国堕胎非法时期的研究：1867年至1973年。然而，这本书最吸引人的一些启示来自于她对之前几年的描述，当时堕胎是非常普遍的，而且基本上没有争议。妇女经常在 "快活 "之前使用草药来 "恢复月经"，这时会感觉到胎儿的第一次踢腿。里根博士写道："法律上接受这种做法，"默认了妇女拥有身体完整的基本权利。随后的反堕胎运动，"核心是反女权主义"，放弃了这种想法。20世纪中期，堕胎被定为刑事犯罪，这一点特别残酷。然而，妇女仍然要求堕胎。如果罗氏被推翻，她们也会这样。

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未出生婴儿的捍卫者。作者：丹尼尔-威廉姆斯。牛津大学出版社；400页；29.95美元和26.49英镑

今天，美国的反堕胎运动与基督教右派有密切联系。但这并不总是如此。在《未出生婴儿的捍卫者》中，丹尼尔-威廉姆斯认为，它最初是一项进步的事业。他用支持堕胎者自己的话--信件、杂志、教会通讯--来说明一些现在基本上被遗忘的事实。民主党人曾经广泛反对堕胎，而许多保守派则支持堕胎。许多早期支持堕胎的人认为，未出生的孩子与贫困和弱者一样值得保护。天主教反堕胎者经常争辩说，国家对生命的保护应该从受孕到生命结束，包括对贫困妇女的支持和联邦资助的儿童保育。其他人则担心政府会利用堕胎来控制非洲裔美国人的人口。"路易斯安那州生命权协会在1972年宣称："堕胎是作为减少私生子数量和减少福利名单的一种方式来倡导的。"你认为堕胎者心里想的是谁？" 在这个两极分化的时代，这是一本特别具有启发性的书。


堕胎与美国的法律。罗伊诉韦德案到现在。作者：玛丽-齐格勒。剑桥大学出版社；332页；29.99美元和22.99英镑

美国的堕胎战争经常被描述为孕妇和胎儿之间的权利冲突。然而，大部分的法律斗争都是在较低的层次上进行的，重点是堕胎的成本和收益以及限制堕胎的法规。在《美国的堕胎和法律》中，法律史学家玛丽-齐格勒（Mary Ziegler）描述了在最高法院作出裁决后，反堕胎者如何迅速而有策略地将重点放在渐进式的限制上，以掏空裁决所体现的权利。反过来，堕胎权利活动家强调了堕胎的好处，特别是对贫穷妇女的好处。他们主张堕胎对健康有益，促使支持堕胎的人声称堕胎会造成严重伤害。在过去的半个世纪中，似乎对堕胎的每一个方面都进行了详细的争论，从手术技术到财务费用。齐格勒女士以她令人印象深刻的冷静风格认为，这一过程有助于将双方进一步分开，同时奖励双方的既得利益。而罗氏的结束将 "仅仅引发新一轮的争斗"。

罗氏家族。一个美国的故事。作者：约书亚-普拉格。W.W. Norton and Company；672页；35美元和25英镑

约书亚-普拉格是一名记者，他花了十多年时间报道诺玛-麦考维（又名简-罗）的生活，她是具有里程碑意义的堕胎案的原告。这也说明了这一点。利用信件、采访和最高法院的文件，《罗氏家族》描绘了一个极其详细的妇女形象，她的案件引发了美国最著名的裁决。虽然她成为了堕胎权利运动的典型代表，但麦考维女士是一个非常糟糕的人。首先，她从未堕过胎：她的第三个孩子是在罗伊进入最高法院之前出生的。后来，她皈依了支持生命的事业，并被拍到在全国电视上接受洗礼，然后在她死前不久放弃了这一切。甚至她的辩护律师也对选择麦考维女士作为原告感到后悔。她是一个不可靠的叙述者，而普拉格先生的书是在许多关于她的生活的描述混淆了真相和虚构之后，试图澄清事实。麦考维女士的混乱故事与堕胎问题到底有什么关系？至少，它提醒人们，很少有容易或简单的真相。■