Beggars and Choosers

by Rickie Solinger

An impassioned argument for reproductive rights

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, advocates of legal abortion mostly used the term rights when describing their agenda. But after Roe v. Wade, their determination to develop a respectable, nonconfrontational movement encouraged many of them to use the word choice--an easier concept for people weary of various rights movements. At first the distinction in language didn't seem to make much difference-the law seemed to guarantee both. But in the years since, the change has become enormously important.

In Beggars and Choosers, Solinger shows how historical distinctions between women of color and white women, between poor and middle-class women, were used in new ways during the era of "choice." Politicians and policy makers began to exclude certain women from the class of "deserving mothers" by using the language of choice to create new public policies concerning everything from Medicaid funding for abortions to family tax credits, infertility treatments, international adoption, teen pregnancy, and welfare. Solinger argues that the class-and-race-inflected guarantee of "choice" is a shaky foundation on which to build our notions of reproductive freedom. Her impassioned argument is for reproductive rights as human rights--as a basis for full citizenship status for women.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Adoption, History, American, Social Justice, Sociology

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spend a lot of time talking about and promoting choice - but until reading this book, it didn't occur to me that using that word, "choice", could be harmful to women. Because using "choice" instead of what we really mean, which is "rights" - as in, women have the RIGHT to make their own reproductive choices, allows people an opening in which to pass judgment and, as we've seen, legislation. By narrowing the language to "choice", we've allowed an anti-choice movement to spring up, because it's much easier to judge a woman for "bad" choices. She made a "bad" choice by failing to use birth control (or by getting drunk, or wearing a short skirt). It also poses adoption as a choice, as an alternative to abortion, which it is not - it's an alternative to parenting.

Solinger also lays out a clear history of true reasons behind the anti-abortion movement: driven by white, Christian men. Without abortion, black women have more babies, which keeps them in poverty (where they belong), and white women produce more babies to be given to "deserving" Christian families who can't have children.

This book is a decade old, but it's importance has not waned. A must read!

[Savannah Quick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this dense but informative. I agree with her points that "choice" language models a consumer protection angle on abortion and that "choice" blocks cross-class coalitions of women supporting each other's reproductive freedom. I think she chalks too much up to "choice" language. She misses opportunities to go deeper by always returning to her thesis on choice.

[Jukka]

Beggars and Choosers - Rickie Solinger
This book caught my attention reading about international adoption in the Nov 26, 2008 Minnesota Women’s Press (excellent paper!). The article is called “Feminist Lens on Adoption” by Katie Leo. http://www.womenspress.com/main.asp?S...
I recommend it.

I really think the ideas of “right to motherhood” and identifying the myths around the “legitimacy of motherhood” is exactly right. This has bearing also toward attitudes regarding abortion and abortion rights as well.

Here's a recent example of this:
Chinese Babies Taken and Sold in International Adoption

Also: Right now in Greece children are being brought by their loving parents to orphanages because they have no money and no options to feed and care for their children.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hard for me to rate because while parts of it are phenomenal, there are sections where I wished she would have pushed the theoretical issues a little bit more. Overall though, this is a phenomenally important book that everyone should read. Sollinger explores the ways in which the language of reproductive "choice" works to constrain reproductive "rights."
highlights:
-"Given the popular definitions of good choice makers and bad, I believe it is crucial to consider the degree to which one woman's possession of reproductive choice may actually depend on or deepen another woman's reproductive vulnerability." From page seven
-Sollinger's analysis of the iconic figures of the Back Alley Butcher and the Welfare Queen
-exposition of the deep paradoxes inherent in US policy toward motherhood: forcing poor single, mothers of infants to go to work (without providing subsidized day care), while simultaneously giving tax credits to middle class women to stay home; foster mothers are given 2/3 more money to care for children than the children's mother's receive from welfare, etc.

Things I wish she would have pushed further:
-feminist theory of motherhood: Sollinger describes the difficulties Concerned United Birthmother's had getting the support of second-wave feminists, because these feminists were reacting against the idea of biological motherhood as the defining characteristic of a woman's life. How can we create a feminist theory of motherhood that recognizes a woman's right NOT to be a mother while recognizing the profound psychological effects that separating a child from its birthmother has on that mother? Sollinger quite thoroughly explores the ways in which United States' culture has been reconstructing motherhood as a consumer activity, but seems at the same time to suggest that there is some essential motherhood that exists beyond culture. How do we respect cultural differences in constructions of motherhood without Othering poor and third world mothers as 'illegitimate' mothers?

[Nikki Metzgar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is imperfect, but it definitely helped me develop and deepen my reasoning for being pro-choice (I mean, pro-reproductive rights). Sometimes in spite of itself.

Solinger basically explores how the language of "choice" makes reproductive rights a consumer product. Only women who can afford it can make the choice to have abortions, keep their babies and generally be thought of as good mothers and women. Instead, we should think of abortion as a right--not a choice--which leads you down the foxhole of what rights the government is responsible for not only defending, but providing access to. Solinger also made me rethink the image of the "Back Alley Butcher" as an image in the fight for legal abortion; not only were most septic at-home abortions performed by the pregnant women themselves, to paint a picture of a deadly abortionist is to taint all abortionists, certified or otherwise. The book also informed me about the dark underbelly of adoption, completely new information to me.

My main complaint is that the book is very repetitive in the 2nd half, and just a barrage of information as to how the government during the Reagan era was basically horrible for women. All solid information, but it didn't really serve to ask or answer any important questions. Surprisingly, there was also a lot of language that implied that motherhood and bearing children is a necessary and fulfilling part of a woman's humanity and I don't know if that is Solinger's voice or not, but I definitely don't agree with that kind of thinking and I find it hard to imagine that other feminists would too.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so BEST TITLE EVER for a nonfiction "issue" book, right???

This is an important, though imperfect, book. If you care about reproductive rights but haven't ever thought too deeply about how the "pro-choice" discourse is constructed and whose interests it narrowly serves, you should read this and Dorthy Roberts's Killing the Black Body. If you're only going to read one, definitely pick Roberts, but Solinger also has very important things to say. While some of its points are fairly obvious, this book expanded my concept and understanding of reproductive rights. Most importantly, I, like a lot of middle-class white women, tend to see reproductive rights as being primarily about access to abortion. Solinger and Roberts both do excellent work showing how extremely narrow and biased that definition is.

This book contains some good social history about women who unintentionally became pregnant in the pre-Roe v. Wade era. Solinger challenges "the myth of the back-alley abortionist" in surprising and convincing ways, and she does a lot on young, single white women who were pressured to give up their babies for adoption. I felt at a few points that the adoption parts seemed a bit polemical and one-sided, and for me these were the weaker parts of the book, but her points are well-made, and changed the way I thought about all of the issues she covers, including adoption.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was completely fascinating, and also a bit infuriating - not the book or the author, but the way women and their lives and 'choices' have been treated and demeaned over the decades. Solinger does a fantastic job of laying out the history of abortion and adoption in the United States and drawing a clear picture of how each political decision has drastically impacted the lives of women over the decades. The main theme is about the illusion of 'choice' when it comes to being a mother and the way this created a consumer driven market in what should be a human rights issue. Who is best suited to be a parent, and should those who are considered inappropriate be allowed to breed at all? And more importantly, how public policy has, unrealized by most people, created a culture that sees poor or resourceless women as able to be good people, good mothers or unworthy of making decisions regarding their own lives.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't even begin to tell you how startling I found this book. The number of topics to which I had devoted little or no thought previously. How well she documented and expressed opinions that I did have. Which is not to say that I agreed with her every point, nor that her every point was groundbreaking. Many of the arguments my sister found shocking I found reasonable (though mostly because we drew different conclusions from them). A good word to sum up this book is: eye-opening. Rather than supporting a view I already had, this book challenged me to think more about the subject. And especially to read more on the subject.

[Matilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Will forever change the way you look at international adoption.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Troubling look at the way we evaluate who is eligible to be a mother, and who is only fit to produce babies for the adoption market.

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sharp analysis of how framing the decision of whether or not to be a mother around "choice" and not "rights" set the reproductive justice movement up to fail. Ties adoption and welfare/the criminalization of poverty into the debate around abortion access to show how all three of them revolve around who gets to be seen as deserving to be a mother and how when reproductive decisions are framed as a "choice" women are then judged for choosing poorly, selfishly, etc. Also some really interesting history about the pre-Roe era that I didn't know about before.

[Dean Oken · Rating 3 out of 5]

[read most of for U.S Women’s History] An eye opening look at the lives of women in the 70s. Incredibly detailed just not my cup of tea

[DJ Heim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not normally a book I would have read if I was not required to for class; I am glad that I did.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for class and learned a lot. sollinger does a good job explaining how the issue of reproductive rights is intertwined with class

[Lalena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Everyone should read this book.

[Grace Seidel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredibly important book that pushes readers to face the paradoxical policies in American government. I read this as research for my Master's thesis about abortion narratives in American literature, and I'm so glad I did! If you are interested in reproductive politics or motherhood, you should give this a read. It isn't too theoretical so a large audience can appreciate and be challenged by this book.