Abortion in Asia Local Dilemmas, Global Politics [Hardcover]

The issue of abortion forces a confrontation with the effects of poverty and economic inequalities, local moral worlds, and the cultural and social perceptions of the female body, gender, and reproduction. Based on extensive original field research, this provocative collection presents case studies from Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and India. It includes powerful insight into the conditions and hard choices faced by women and the circumstances surrounding unplanned pregnancies. It explores the connections among poverty, violence, barriers to access, and the politics and strategies involved in abortion law reform. The contributors analyze these issues within the broader conflicts surrounding women's status, gender roles, religion, nationalism and modernity, as well as the global politics of reproductive health.

Andrea Whittakeris Associate Professor in the School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia. Her previous publications includeIntimate Knowledge: Women and their health in North-east Thailand(2000),Womens Health in South-east Asia(edited, 2002) andAbortion, Sin, and the State in Thailand(2004). Her current research interests focus on infertility and reproductive tourism and medical travel in Thailand and the region.

[This book] makes an empirically rich and important contribution to social scientific scholarship on induced abortion practices and will hopefully inspire further studies.? ??Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale

&although there is a wealth of commonalities, these papers present the context as crucial. The contributors make good use of womens personal stories to invigorate the discussion of the many dilemmas. The womens stories also demonstrate the extent to which local initiatives may be compromised by global influences, as exemplified by short sighted religious campaigns and the resulting donor/aid restrlS°