Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health

The Bixby Center's Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) Program is offering an online class in 2008, The Sociology of Abortion, taught by Profs. Carole Joffe and Tracy Weitz.

Syllabus and Required Reading

Jan 16, 2008         Introduction

Jan 23, 2008         History of Abortion

Jan 30, 2008         History of Abortion: Continued

    • Rose, Melody. 2007. Safe, legal, and unavailable?: Abortion politics in the United States. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Introduction, pp.1-19.
    • Joffe, Carole. 1995. Doctors of conscience: the struggle to provide abortion before and after Roe v. Wade. Boston: Beacon Press, Chapters 2,3, pp.27-69. Also skim Chapter 4, pp.70-107). 
    • Miller, Patricia G. 1993. The worst of times. New York: HarperCollins
    • PowerPoint Presentation

Feb 6, 2008            Public Health Aspects of Abortion in the US

    • Rose, Melody. 2007. Safe, legal, and unavailable?: Abortion politics in the United States. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Chapter 1, pp.25-52.
    • Boonstra, Heather D., Rachel Benson Gold, Cory L. Richards, and Lawrence B. Finer. 2006. "Abortion in Women's Lives." New York, NY: Guttmacher Institute.
    • PowerPoint Presentation

Feb 13, 2008          Key Legal Cases

    • Rose, Melody. 2007. Safe, legal, and unavailable?: Abortion politics in the United States. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Chapter 2, pp.57-83.
    • Balkin, J. M. 2005. "Roe v. Wade: An Engine of Controversy." Pp. 3-27 in What Roe v. Wade should have said: the nation's top legal experts rewrite America's most controversial decision, edited by J. M. Balkin. New York, NY: New York University Press.
    • Ehrlich, J. Shoshanna. 2006. Who decides?: the abortion rights of teens. Westport, CT: Praeger, pp.33-69.
    • Joffe, Carole.  2007. The Abortion Procedure Ban: Bush’s Gift to his Base. Dissent Magazine:57-61.

Feb 20, 2008         The Antiabortion Social Movement(s)

    • Luker, Kristin. 1984. Abortion and the politics of motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 192-215.
    • Mason, Carol. 2002. Killing for life: the apocalyptic narrative of pro-life politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 10-45
    • Gordon, Linda. 2002. The moral property of women: a history of birth control politics in America. Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 295-320.
    • PowerPoint Presentation

Feb 27, 2008          Realities of Abortion Provision

    • Rose, Melody. 2007. Safe, legal, and unavailable?: Abortion politics in the United States. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Chapter 3-4, pp.87-156.
    • Watch: The Last Abortion Clinic, PBS

Mar 5, 2008       Abortion Provision continued

Mar 12, 2008      Spring Break

Mar 19, 2008      The Spread of Abortion Politics

    • di Mauro, Diane, and Carole Joffe. 2007. "The Religious Right and the Reshaping of Sexual Policy: An Examination of Reproductive Rights and Sexuality Education." Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC 4:67-92.
    • Shorto, Russell. May 7,  2006. "Contra-Contraception." in New York Times Magazine.
    • Goldberg, Michelle. 2006. Kingdom coming: the rise of Christian nationalism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., pp.134-154.
    • PowerPoint Presentation

Mar 26, 2008      Abortion in Popular Culture                                       

    • Condit, Celeste Michelle. 1990. Decoding abortion rhetoric: communicating social change. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. See pp. 22-42.
    • Isern, María Teresa Icart, Rosa Rozas García, and María del Carmen Icart Isern. 2007. "Vera Drake (2004) and The Cider House Rules (1999): the Abortion in the Cinema and its Use in teaching." J Med Mov 3 113-121.
    • Weitz, Tracy A, and Anthony Hunter. 2003. "Six Feet Under Brings Abortion to the Surface." American Sexuality Magazine 1:
    • Rickey, Carrie. 2007. "The A-Word is absent." in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, PA.
    • Navarro, Mireya. 2007. "On Abortion, Hollywood is No-Choice." in New York Times. New York, NY.
    • PowerPoint Presentation

Apr 2, 2008          Abortion in Public Opinion                                        

Apr 9, 2008          New Debates over Abortion                                        

Apr 16, 2008        The Shift to Reproductive Justice                               

    • ACRJ. 2005. "A new vision for advancing our movement for reproductive health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice." Oakland, CA: Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (ACRJ).
    • Arons, Jessica. 2006. "More Than A Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health & Rights." Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.
    • Rose, Melody. 2007. Safe, legal, and unavailable?: Abortion politics in the United States. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Chapter 6, pp.181-195.
    • PowerPoint Presentation

Apr 23, 2008        Abortion in the International Arena                           

    • Sedgh, G., S. Henshaw, S. Singh, E. Ahman, and I. H. Shah. 2007. "Induced abortion: estimated rates and trends worldwide." Lancet 370:1338-45.
    • IPAS. 2003. "5 Portraits Many Lives: How Unsafe Abortion Affects Women Everywhere." Chapel Hill, NC: IPAS.
    • Crane, B. B., and J. Dusenberry. 2004. "Power and politics in international funding for reproductive health: the US Global Gag Rule." Reproductive Health Matters 12:128-37.

Apr 30, 2008       The Future of Abortion Care