Recent years have revealed the different experiences of abortion in the UK and the USA. The United States has a higher abortion rate accompanied by a higher political profile for the issue. In fact, one of George W. Bush's first acts in 2001 was to ban American funding for overseas organizations carrying out abortions. The USA has also experienced a higher degree of abortion-related violence, with several people linked to abortion services being targeted and even killed. Compelling and enlightening in its approach, this invigorating volume compares the two countries' abortion laws and outlines the distinctions. The usually conservative American society has a much more liberal abortion law than the United Kingdom, whose female citizens can obtain an abortion relatively easily although in fact they do not have the right to choose. This stimulating volume examines the comparative positions taken by each country and makes important suggestions for the future.
Industry Reviews
'Abortion in the USA and the UK provides a highly readable and informative summary of the law, politics and provision of abortion in these two societies. Those new to these issues will find this book to be a very good place to start. Those familiar with them will benefit from the up-to-date account of developments, taking us to 2003, that runs through the text.' Ellie Lee, University of Kent, UK 'Colin Francome guides us through fifty years of history in the effort to legalize abortion in the United States and the UK. Each country's route to legal abortion has been different and these differences are thoroughly detailed and analyzed herein. Understanding these differences may be key to understanding the continued controversy that surrounds current attempts to de-criminalize abortion in much of the developing world and to preserve legal abortion in a number of countries where it is challenged by conservatives.' Frances Kissling, Catholics for a Free Choice, Washington, USA (taken from the Foreword) 'Colin Francome has devoted much of his academic life to researching the abortion issue and this book provides an insightful account of his findings.' Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care '...offers a good record of historical, socio-political and legal aspects of this most contentious and vexed element of women's reproductive health from a global perspective.' Health Sociology News 'Dr Francome is widely regarded as the leading British expert on the social significance of abortion.' Abortion Practice '...Francome shows a consummate knowledge of his subject, drawing in cultural references from far and wide.' Conscience
