Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom In The 21st Century

by Alexander Sanger

Thirty years after Roe v. Wade, the argument between "pro-choicers" and "pro-lifers" has reached stalemate. Pro-choice arguments haven't persuaded a comfortable majority that legal abortion is vital to our society, nor addressed our moral qualms. Younger people are less and less supportive of reproductive rights. Since 1996, state legislatures have enacted nearly 300 pieces of anti-choice legislation. With Roe in jeopardy, International Planned Parenthood Council Chair Alexander Sanger asks a simple but heretical How many more pieces of anti-choice legislation will it take to get the pro-choice movement to rethink its approach to the issue?

In Beyond Choice Sanger explores the history of the reproductive rights movement to discover how it got stuck in its thinking, and then provides a convincing new argument for the moral rightness of its cause. He shows why it is vital to the health and survival of the human race that couples be able to have children, or not, when they choose; why reproductive rights are just as important to men as to women; and why, in an era of new reproductive technologies, completely unfettered choice is not morally defensible.

Beyond Choice is inspiring and important reading for women's rights advocates, opinion leaders, medical ethicists, and anyone concerned to preserve our freedom to reproduce, or not, without government intervention.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, History, Sociology, Religion, Womens, Cultural Studies

Hardcover

First published January 20, 2004

Reviews

[Aiden Feltkamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read. A must-read for anyone interested in reproductive health and history.

[Lucy Kraus-Cuddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

too much fancy technical language that could easily be dumbed down, but good overview of many topics surrounding abortion. also written by a man…hmmm

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to really like this book. The premise is great: for too long the pro-choice movement has ceded moral authority to the pro-life camp and it is time to re frame the issue. Yes, I agree but i think that this book focuses too much on the biological and evolution component at the expense of seeming to ignore the moral dimension to the question.

While I think that Sanger does a good job explaining why men need to be involved in the abortion debate, why reproductive freedom needs to be couched as a civil right, and why the debate needs to shift to include various aspects of sexual health the book seemed to think that all these issues could be reduced to simple biology and evolution. I feel that the answers are more complicated and the book does not provide a way to confront the arguments made by the pro-life movement.

Instead, it simply disengages from the moral component to focus on why controlling reproduction is good for women's overall reproductive strategy. Although the book was interesting for advocates or those interested in learning how to respond to moral arguments I feel there are many better books out there.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who is firmly pro-choice, I felt the arguments that Mr. Sanger proposed in his book are compelling - that the pro-choice movement needs to emphasize that the right to choose is the best option for women biologically (they have the chance to space their pregnancies best suited to their health needs, raise children when they are emotionally, physically, and economically able to, etc). Unfortunately, I do not think Mr. Sanger's arguments are not compelling enough to persuade people morally opposed to abortion. As he states, "The challenge for humanity is to believe in biology and evolution as positive forces for humanity."

[Steve]

This is not very well written. I got about halfway through chapter 3 and am giving up. There are better books out there to read, including on the same topic.