Critical Social Inquiry 0272 - From Choice to Justice: The Politics of the Abortion Debate

Abortion rights continue to be contested in the U.S. and throughout the world. Since it was legalized in the U.S. in 1973, there have been significant erosions in abortion rights and access, and today, federal protections to legal abortion are poised to end opening the opportunity for direct challenges and outright bans through state laws. While the strategy of harassment of abortion seekers, clinics, providers, and clinic personnel by opponents of abortion is routine, recent laws make the case that opponents are widening the scope of their agenda and employing similar strategies in other social movements. This course examines abortion politics in the U.S. before legalization to the present. We view the abortion battle in the U.S. in the wider framework of reproductive justice. Specific topics of inquiry include abortion worldwide, coercive contraception and sterilization abuse, welfare rights, population control, incarceration and reproduction, and the criminalization of pregnancy. We explore the ethical, political, and legal dimensions of the issue and investigate anti-abortion organizing and the resistance to it from the abortion rights and reproductive justice movements.

In/Justice Students should generally expect to spend 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.