This study shows state power at work in the struggle between foetal rights and the rights of the woman, and suggests the depth of the current gender crisis. Daniels raises critical questions about women's standing as citizens, and about the relationship between state power and gender inequality.

These cases raise critical questions about women's standing as citizens, and about the relationship between state power and gender inequality. Fully appreciating the difficulties of each case, the author probes the subtleties of various positions and their implications, for a deeper understanding of how a woman's reproductive capability affects her relationship to state power. In her analysis, the need to defend women's right to self-sovereignty becomes clear, but so does the need to define further the very concepts of self-sovereignty and privacy. The intensity of the debate over foetal rights suggests the depth of the current gender crisis, and the strength of feelings of social dislocation generated by reproductive politics.