Reproduction Reconceived : Family Making and the Limits of Choice After Roe V. Wade

The landmark case Roe v. Wade redefined family: it is now commonplace for Americans to treat having children as a choice. But the historic decision also coincided with widening inequality, an ongoing trend that continues to make choice more myth than reality. In this new and timely history, Matthiesen shows how the effects of incarceration, for-profit healthcare, disease, and poverty have been worsened by state neglect, forcing most to work harder to maintain a family. "The landmark case Roe v. Wade helped cement a redefinition of family: it is now commonplace for Americans to treat having children as a choice. But the historic decision coincided with what would become a decades-long trend of widening inequality, ensuring that many families still struggle to obtain even basic necessities. Reproduction Reconceived examines how family making actually became harder after the arrival of choice, as different families confronted incarceration, for-profit and racist medical care, disease, poverty, and a welfare state in retreat. Drawing on diverse archival sources and interviews, Sara Matthiesen illustrates how the last fifty years of state neglect have ensured that, for most families, meaningful choice is nowhere to be found"-- Provided by publisher Cover Reproduction Reconceived Title Copyright Contents Introduction 1. The Labor of Illegibility: Lesbian and Single Motherhood According to the Law 2. The Labor of Captivity: Incarcerated Mothers and Their Children 3. The Labor of Survival: Racism, Poverty, and the Uses of Infant Mortality Rates 4. The Labor of Risk: Or, How to Have a Family in the HIV/AIDS Epidemic 5. The Labor of “Choice”: Navigating the Abortion Debate and Lifelines of Last Resort Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index