More than thirty years after Roe v. Wade, the conflict over abortion has not abated. While “pro-choice” forces increasingly concede the central “pro-life” claim—that abortion is a morally portentous act—they still insist that the well-being of women depends absolutely on a legal right to abortion. The twelve essays in The Cost of Choice, all by women active in the public square, argue that legal abortion has in fact harmed women—socially, medically, psychologically and culturally.
Law professor Elizabeth Schiltz describes the unsettling reactions she faced for “choosing” to give birth to a child with Down Syndrome. Dr. Angel Lanfranchi, co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, offers evidence supporting a link between induced abortion and increased risk of breast cancer. Psychiatrist Joanne Angelo tells how abortion has affected women she has treated.
With essays by imminent women such as Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Eleonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities at Emory University, The Cost of Choice shows another side of feminism and captures the complexity of a divisive social issue.
