Provides comprehensive and stimulating picture of current abortion policy and practice in Europe, United States, Canada and Japan.

Focuses on current abortion policy and practice in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan and aims to provide a comprehensive and balanced picture of current abortion policy in a cross-cultural perspective. The contributors deal with comparative abortion policy including recent developments in Ireland, Germany and Eastern Europe.

Preface Introduction Part I - Rhetoric and Reform: Struggles over the Law Introduction 1. Laura R. Woliver Rhetoric and Symbols in American Abortion Politics 2. Kim Lane Schepple Constitutionalizing Abortion 3. Marianne Githens Reproductive Rights and the Struggle with Change in Eastern Europe Part II - The Reality Factor: Availability and Access to Abortion Services Introduction 4. Donley T. Studlar and Raymond Tatalovich Abortion Policy in the United States and Canada: Do Institutions Matter? 5. Dorothy McBride Stetson Abortion Policy Triads and Women's Rights in Russia, The United States and France 6. Joyce Gelb Abortion and Reproductive Choice:
Policy and Politics in Japan Part III - Rhetoric, Reality and Rights: The Implications of the Policy Environment
Introduction 7. Joyce Outshoorn The Stability of Compromise: Abortion Politics in Western Europe 8. Brian Girvin Ireland and the European Union: The Impact of Integration and Social Change on Abortion Policy Part IV - Beyond Abortion: New Reproductive Technologies Introduction 9. Jennifer Merchant Confronting the Consequences of Medical Technology: Policy Frontiers in the United States and France 10. Dorothy McBride Stetson Feminist Perspectives on Abortion and Reproductive Technologies Contributors
Index