For over twenty years the abortion debate has raged, with each side entrenched in unyielding positions. This book breaks the impasse by using pro-life premises to reach pro-choice conclusions. While it is commonly assumed that state protection of the fetus as a form of human life undermines women's reproductive rights, McDonagh instead illuminates how it is exactly such state protection of the fetus that strengthens, rather than weakens, not only women's right to an abortion, but even more significantly, women's ability to call on the state for abortion funding. McDonagh's approach, by bridging the divide between pro-life and pro-choice advocates, revolutionizes the abortion debate in a way that opens up a whole new avenue for resolving the abortion conflict and advancing women's rights.
McDonagh reframes the abortion debate by locating the missing piece of the puzzle: the fetus as the cause of pregnancy. After exposing the myths on this subject, her exacting analysis presents the scientific and legal evidence that the ultimate source of pregnancy is the fetus. The central issue then becomes what the fetus, as an active agent, does to a woman's body during pregnancy, whether that pregnancy is wanted or not. McDonagh graphically describes the massive changes produced by the fetus when it takes over a woman's body. As such, pregnancy is best depicted not as a condition that women have a right to choose but rather as a condition to which they must have a right to consent.
Abortion, therefore, does not rest on the intensely debated principle, stated in Roe, that women have a right to be free from state interference when choosing privately what to do with their own bodies. Instead, as McDonagh's book explains, abortion rights flow inevitably from women's more established right to consent to what another agent does to their body. Specifically, women have a right to resist an unwanted intrusion by a fetus as well as to receive help from the state to stop such an intrusion.
Moving abortion rights from choice to consent has broad legal and cultural ramifications tapping into the very cornerstone of the American political system: consent. McDonagh unravels the consequences of extending to pregnant women the same guarantees of bodily integrity and liberty possessed by others in our society. Specifically, she shows why a woman who does not consent to be made pregnant by a fetus, not only has a right to terminate pregnancy, but why the state violates constitutional due process and equal protection guarantees when it fails to provide her with the same protections against nonconsensual intrusions by a fetus as it provides against nonconsensual intrusions by other parties. This book pivotally strengthens, therefore, not only women's right to abortion but also abortion funding. By providing new grounds both for the public funding of abortion and for the removal of government restrictions on abortions, it lays the foundation for enhancing women's rights through major policy changes in legislatures and courts.
Industry Reviews
"Eileen McDonagh makes an original and provocative argument which has the potential to transform our understanding of abortion and secure not only the right to abortion, but also abortion funding. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in abortion rights."--Patricia Ireland, President, National Organization for Women (NOW)
"Drawing on the traditional legal doctrine of consent, Eileen McDonagh constructs a powerful, new, women-centered framework for abortion rights based on a woman's right to consent to pregnancy. Professor McDonagh's intriguing analysis turns anti-abortion rhetoric and anti-abortion state policy on their heads, and offers a strong foundation for abortion rights generaly and the government's obligation to provide Medicaid funding for poor women more particularly.
Well-argued and well-researched, Breaking the Abortion Deadlock is a must read for all activists, scholars, attorneys, and policy makers involved in the debate over abortion rights."--Eleanor Smeal,
President, Feminist Majority Foundation
"Eileen McDonagh's vivid argument is an important addition to the literature on abortion."--Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School
"McDonagh's timely and powerful argument for choice analyzes how the state's treatment of the fetus as a person can strengthen, rather than weaken, women's right not only to an abortion, but to abortion funding. Her approach is unique in its combination of arguments based on equality, consent, and the state's duty to protect all citizens. It is analytically rigorous on a formal level and compelling on deeper levels. This book is courageous, innovative, and
directly addresses a weakness many have found in the pro-choice movement." Mary E. Becker, The University of Chicago School of Law
"Eileen McDonagh provides the most original and provocative defense of the morality of abortion that has appeared in decades. It is a lucid and sophisticated exploration of contemporary thinking on a difficult human issue."--Sylvia A. Law, New York University Law School
"Very few discussions of abortion really consider the position of a woman who is pregnant and doesn't want to be. Eileen McDonaghs book should make it impossible for anyone who takes abortion seriously to ignore her arguments."-- Loftus E. Becker, Jr., University of Connecticut School of Law
"McDonagh offers a provocative thesis: If a woman has the right to defend herself against a rapist, she also should be able to use deadly force to expel a fetus....Dr. McDonagh is turning a popular anti-abortion argument on its head. Abortion oppenents argue that a woman doesn't have the right to choose to terminate the life of a fetus. Dr. McDonagh says the fetus doesn't have the right to invade a woman's body."--Chronicle of Higher Education
"A brilliant book....McDonagh's readiness to meet the pro-life argument on its own ground, accepting the possibility of fetal personhood, allows her to come to a more compelling defense of abortion rights than pro-choice advocates or than the Roe v. Wade decision, itself. McDonagh's reframing of the abortion debate as about consent rather than choice is breathtaking in its originality and in the depth of its scholarship."-- Mary Katzenstein, Cornell
University
"[This] groundbreaking study provocatively challenges us to see abortion from a new perspective. The layered, compelling logic of McDonagh's thesis, the extensive documentation and research supporting each step of her argument, and the politically powerful implications of extending hallowed, established legal rights to the situation of a pregnancy not consented to, makes this book of utmost importance to anyone thinking about women's rights, reproductive and
privacy laws, and government obligations to assist women negotiating their reproductive decisions."--The Law and Politics Book Review
"Eileen McDonaugh understands that the fuse that ignites the emotional powderkeg is choice, and she strives to avoid the volatility of the dichotomy of choice. By reframing the debate as one about consent rather than choice (pro-choice or anti-choice), McDonaugh offers an original, well-argued defense of abortion rights."--Medium
"Eileen McDonagh makes an original and provocative argument which has the potential to transform our understanding of abortion and secure not only the right to abortion, but also abortion funding. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in abortion rights."--Patricia Ireland, President, National Organization for Women (NOW)
"Drawing on the traditional legal doctrine of consent, Eileen McDonagh constructs a powerful, new, women-centered framework for abortion rights based on a woman's right to consent to pregnancy. Professor McDonagh's intriguing analysis turns anti-abortion rhetoric and anti-abortion state policy on their heads, and offers a strong foundation for abortion rights generally and the government's obligation to provide Medicaid funding for poor women more particularly.
Well-argued and well-researched, Breaking the Abortion Deadlock is a must read for all activists, scholars, attorneys, and policy makers involved in the debate over abortion rights."--Eleanor Smeal,
President, Feminist Majority Foundation
"Eileen McDonagh's vivid argument is an important addition to the literature on abortion."--Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School
"McDonagh's timely and powerful argument for choice analyzes how the state's treatment of the fetus as a person can strengthen, rather than weaken, women's right not only to an abortion, but to abortion funding. Her approach is unique in its combination of arguments based on equality, consent, and the state's duty to protect all citizens. It is analytically rigorous on a formal level and compelling on deeper levels. This book is courageous, innovative, and
directly addresses a weakness many have found in the pro-choice movement." Mary E. Becker, The University of Chicago School of Law
"Eileen McDonagh provides the most original and provocative defense of the morality of abortion that has appeared in decades. It is a lucid and sophisticated exploration of contemporary thinking on a difficult human issue."--Sylvia A. Law, New York University Law School
"Very few discussions of abortion really consider the position of a woman who is pregnant and doesn't want to be. Eileen McDonaghs book should make it impossible for anyone who takes abortion seriously to ignore her arguments."-- Loftus E. Becker, Jr., University of Connecticut School of Law
"McDonagh offers a provocative thesis: If a woman has the right to defend herself against a rapist, she also should be able to use deadly force to expel a fetus....Dr. McDonagh is turning a popular anti-abortion argument on its head. Abortion oppenents argue that a woman doesn't have the right to choose to terminate the life of a fetus. Dr. McDonagh says the fetus doesn't have the right to invade a woman's body."--Chronicle of Higher Education
"A brilliant book....McDonagh's readiness to meet the pro-life argument on its own ground, accepting the possibility of fetal personhood, allows her to come to a more compelling defense of abortion rights than pro-choice advocates or than the Roe v. Wade decision, itself. McDonagh's reframing of the abortion debate as about consent rather than choice is breathtaking in its originality and in the depth of its scholarship."-- Mary Katzenstein, Cornell
University
"[This] groundbreaking study provocatively challenges us to see abortion from a new perspective. The layered, compelling logic of McDonagh's thesis, the extensive documentation and research supporting each step of her argument, and the politically powerful implications of extending hallowed, established legal rights to the situation of a pregnancy not consented to, makes this book of utmost importance to anyone thinking about women's rights, reproductive and
privacy laws, and government obligations to assist women negotiating their reproductive decisions."--The Law and Politics Book Review
"Eileen McDonaugh understands that the fuse that ignites the emotional powderkeg is choice, and she strives to avoid the volatility of the dichotomy of choice. By reframing the debate as one about consent rather than choice (pro-choice or anti-choice), McDonaugh offers an original, well-argued defense of abortion rights."--Medium
"...well-organized and logical."--American Reporter
"...[McDonagh] succeeds in drawing sharper lines between the opposing worldviews undergirding the abortion debate....[she] puts forth her case clearly, fairly and competently, having mastered and marshalled a wealth of background material. Her book will be a helpful addition to a personal or institutional library..."--Medical Humanities Review
"Eileen McDonagh makes a provocative argument that reignites the philosophical controversy, and B.A.D. reviatlized my interest in this issue."--Ethics
"No one who claims to have an informed opinions about abortion can afford to miss this book."--Ethics
"Clearly written in lively prose.--"Ethics
"I recommend it for undergraduate courses, as well."--Ethics
