Reproductive Rights in a Global Context: South Africa, Uganda, Peru, Denmark, United States, Vietnam, Jordan

Book info: Reproductive Rights in a Global Context: South Africa, Uganda, Peru, Denmark, United States, Vietnam, Jordan (Hardcover, 312 pages) – Vanderbilt University Press, 2006. Language: English.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 2006Traveling alone when she was between 17 and 22, with no institutional affiliation and no financial assistance, the author visited five developing countries and two developed ones on five continents. Her goal was to extend her own experience in an abortion clinic in Portland, Oregon. Lara Knudsen interviewed over 90 women's rights activists, health professionals, NGO workers, and government officials, gaining a sense of both official policies and the actual delivery of services in local clinics. The book places the experiences of women within the global context of how international population control agendas have influenced women's reproductive rights in the past, and how the changing international discourse on reproductive health continues to influence those rights today. Editorial Reviews Review This easy-to-read, enlightening, and interesting book will be on the reading lists for this reviewer's lower-level social research and upper-level demography courses. Highly recommended.
--Choice

Reproductive Rights in a Global Context offers a feminist vision of reproductive health care that bridges the divide between North and South, without neglecting the societal distinctions that characterize the diverse countries covered by the book. Each chapter contains a wealth of information on the country of study and includes the perspective of activists and practitioners who are currently fighting for better access to reproductive health care. The book balances the complexities of each case and different forms of activism with a unifying vision of guaranteeing reproductive rights for all women as a matter of social justice. Issues of class, race and culture are not brushed aside, as sometimes happens in studies with a human rights focus. Instead, the unique web of power relations shaping reproduction in each context is presented, while maintaining the study's focus on fertility, contraception, abortion and sex education. The book is an essential primer on the comparative experiences of reproductive riLara M. Knudsen, from Portland, Oregon, graduated from Marlboro College in Vermont in 2003. She is currently a student of medicine and public health at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and plans to pursue a career in women's health.This easy-to-read, enlightening, and interesting book will be on the reading lists for this reviewer's lower-level social research and upper-level demography courses. Highly recommended." - Choice
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 2006 About the Author Lara M. Knudsen, from Portland, Oregon, graduated from Marlboro College in Vermont in 2003. She is currently a student of medicine and public health at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and plans to pursue a career in women's health.