Trust women : a progressive Christian argument for reproductive justice / Rebecca Todd Peters.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Boston, Massachusetts : Beacon Press, 2018Description: 240 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780807069981
- 0807069981
- 9780807041482
- 0807041483
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 362.1988 P483 | Available | 33111009133907 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
In an age in which women's reproductive rights are increasingly under attack, a minister and ethicist offers a stirring argument that abortion can be a moral good
Here's a fact that we often ignore- unplanned pregnancy and abortion are a normal part of women's reproductive lives. Roughly one-third of US women will have an abortion by age forty-five, and fifty to sixty percent of the women who have abortions were using birth control during the month they got pregnant. Yet women who have abortions are routinely shamed and judged, and safe and affordable access to abortion is under relentless assault, with the most devastating impact on poor women and women of color.
Rebecca Todd Peters, a Presbyterian minister and social ethicist, argues that this shaming and judging reflects deep, often unspoken patriarchal and racist assumptions about women and women's sexual activity. These assumptions are at the heart of what she calls the justification framework, which governs our public debate about abortion, and disrupts our ability to have authentic public discussions about the health and well-being of women and their families.
Abortion, then, isn't the social problem we should be focusing on. The problem is our inability to trust women to act as rational, capable, responsible moral agents who must weigh the concrete moral question of what to do when they are pregnant or when there are problems during a pregnancy.
Ambitious in method and scope, Trust Women skillfully interweaves political analysis, sociology, ancient and modern philosophy, Christian tradition, and medical history, and grounds its analysis in the material reality of women's lives and their decisions about sexuality, abortion, and child-bearing. It ends with a powerful re-imagining of the moral contours of pre-natal life and suggests we recognize pregnancy as a time when a woman must assent, again and again, to an ethical relationship with the prenate.
ONE IN THREE -- You Shouldn't Have a Baby Just Because You're Pregnant -- Abortion in Real Life -- Abortion Policy as the Public Abuse of Women -- WHY MISOGYNY AND PATRIARCHY MATTER -- Misogyny Is Exhausting -- Patriarchy as Social Control -- The Tragedy of Flawed Moral Discourse -- MOVING FROM JUSTIFICATION TO JUSTICE -- Reimagining Pregnancy -- Motherhood as Moral Choice -- Celebrating the Moral Courage of Women
Introduction -- One in three. You shouldn't have a baby just because you're pregnant ; Abortion in real life ; Abortion policy as the public abuse of women -- Why misogyny and patriarchy matter. Misogyny is exhausting ; Patriarchy as social control ; The tragedy of flawed moral discourse -- Moving from justification to justice. Reimagining pregnancy ; Motherhood as moral choice ; Celebrating the moral courage of women.
"In an age where Roe v. Wade is in danger of being overturned, a minister and ethicist offers a Christian defense of abortion, arguing that we need to trust women to make moral decisions about their pregnancies, their families, and their futures. Unplanned pregnancy and abortion are a normal part of women's reproductive lives: roughly one-third of US women will have an abortion by age forty-five, and fifty to sixty percent of the women who have abortions were using birth control during the month that they got pregnant. Yet women who have abortions are shamed and judged for their actions, and safe access to abortion is under relentless assault. In this carefully reasoned and powerful book, Christian ethicist Rebecca Todd Peters argues that abortion is not the problem. The problem is our inability to trust women to act as rational, capable, responsible moral agents who must weigh the concrete moral question of how to respond to a particular unplanned pregnancy. When we move away from a debate requiring women to justify ending a pregnancy, Peters writes, and toward a debate that considers the broader social problems and questions that shape women's reproductive lives, and the lives of their children, we will have created a public policy debate that is asking the right questions. In an age in which women's reproductive rights are increasingly under attack, Peter's stirring defense of abortion as an ethical choice is necessary reading"-- Provided by publisher.
Peters offers a Christian defense of abortion, arguing that we need to trust women to make moral decisions about their pregnancies, their families, and their futures. Abortion is not the problem: the problem is our inability to trust women to act as rational, capable, responsible moral agents who must weigh the concrete moral question of how to respond to a particular unplanned pregnancy. In an age in which women's reproductive rights are increasingly under attack, Peter's stirring defense of abortion as an ethical choice is necessary reading. -- adapted from publisher info
Includes bibliographical references and index.