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Roe v. Wade

The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History

N. E. H. Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer

October 2001
312 pages, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2
Landmark Law Cases and American Society
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1142-3, $35.00
Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-1143-0, $15.95 (t)

Book Cover ImageAbortion. In a sharply divided America is there a more divisive issue? The bitter debate over Roe v. Wade--in the courts, legislatures, press, and streets--has grown ever more ferocious since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in 1973. For years pro-choicers have applauded Roe as a guarantee of women's rights, while pro-lifers have condemned it as the work of an activist and atheistic Court. Now it looms at the center of a growing political storm, as a new president, an old Court, and a divided Congress reconsider Roe's status in the wake of the controversial 2000 elections.

Anyone looking for a concise, balanced, readable, teachable, current, and complete guide to the case need search no further than this new volume by N. E. H. Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer. Giving due respect to both sides of the conflict, the authors effectively trace and analyze the core debates, examine the case's unique history, clarify the jurisprudence behind the Court's ruling, and gauge its impact on American society. Of special note is their revealing account of how the Court attempted to steer a middle course by rejecting both abortion on demand and the absolute right to life and yet, in the end, wound up igniting a firestorm of protest instead.

Unlike other accounts of Roe, this one examines the complete social and legal context of the case. Hull and Hoffer review more than a century of abortion practice (and abuse), common-law views on abortion, nineteenth-century criminalization measures, and the rapid changes in science, public mores, and civil rights that finally brought the issue before the Supreme Court. They also trace abortion law through the twentieth century, reprise the 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut, in which the Supreme Court overturned a state law against contraceptives, and reexamine the highly publicized attempts to reverse Roe in Webster v. Reproductive Services (1989) and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992).

All of the key actors are here: Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" who never actually had the abortion she originally sought; attorney Sarah Weddington, who challenged Texas law by drawing on her own abortion experience; lobbyists on both sides of the question; and each of the Supreme Court justices. This is a book that can inform and enlighten those on either side of the debate, as well as all of those in between.

"Much more than a compact account of the Supreme Court's basic abortion decisions, Hull and Hoffer's work ranges widely to locate the constitutional and political controversies over abortion in the context of social movements and women's history. An astute and balanced guide to a much-debated subject."--Mark V. Tushnet, author of Abortion: Constitutional Issues

"Hull and Hoffer move from big-picture issues to key case details without ever losing sight of the very human side of American law and politics. Their book is a wonderful resource for students of all ages looking for basic information and important insights into one of the truly landmark law cases in our nation's history."--Sarah Weddington, author of A Question of Choice

N. E. H. HULL is Distinguished Professor of Law and a member of the graduate faculty in history at Rutgers University-Camden.

PETER CHARLES HOFFER is Research Professor of History at the University of Georgia. He is the author of The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History and The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slavery, Crime, and Colonial Law.