Beyond control : medical power and abortion law
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London : Pluto, 1997
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SHELDON, Sally, Beyond control : medical power and abortion law, London : Pluto, 1997 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/42888
Abstract
Abortion is now recognised as primarily a medical issue, rather than one of political and social importance; its regulation determined by the authority of doctors and other medical professionals. In the first comprehensive historical study of the regulation of abortion, Sally Sheldon examines the causes and effects of the medicalisation of abortion, focusing on the role that law has played in this process. Sheldon traces the history of the modern law on abortion, examining regulation in Britain prior to the 1967 Abortion Act, following with a detailed study of the Act itself and the values which underpin it, and locating the British law in a comparative context. Taking a theoretical approach to the subject, Sheldon draws on the work of Foucault and on feminist theory to challenge common perceptions that the law has evolved to embrace a more permissive stance on abortion and that in so doing Britain, in particular, has now 'solved' the 'abortion problem'.
Table of Contents
-- Table of Statutes
-- Acknowledgments
-- 1. Abortion in Britain: Thirty Years On
-- 2. The Abortion Act (1967): A Permissive and Liberatory Reform?
-- 3. 'Tarts and Tired Housewives': the Abortion Act and the Regulation of Femininity
-- 4. Abortion, Reproduction and the Deployment of Medical Power
-- 5. The Judicial Protection of Medical Discretion
-- 6. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990): Winning the Battles but Losing the War?
-- 7. The Regulation of Antiprogestin Terminations
-- 8. Conclusions
-- Appendix 1: The Abortion Act (1967), unamended
-- Appendix 2: The Abortion Act (1967), as amended in 1990
-- Bibliography
-- Index