The history of pregnancy testing, and how it transformed from an esoteric laboratory tool to a commonplace of everyday life. Pregnancy testing has never been easier. Waiting on one side or the other of the bathroom door for a “positive” or “negative” result has become a modern ritual and rite of passage. Today, the ubiquitous home pregnancy test is implicated in personal decisions and public debates about all aspects of reproduction, from miscarriage and abortion to the “biological clock” and IVF. Yet, only three generations ago, women typically waited not minutes but months to find out whether they were pregnant. A Woman’s Right to Know tells, for the first time, the story of pregnancy testing—one of the most significant and least studied technologies of reproduction. Focusing on Britain from around 1900 to the present day, Jesse Olszynko-Gryn shows how demand shifted from doctors to women, and then goes further to explain the remarkable transformation of pregnancy testing from an obscure laboratory service to an easily accessible (though fraught) tool for every woman. Lastly, the book reflects on resources the past might contain for the present and future of sexual and reproductive health. Solidly researched and compellingly argued, Olszynko-Gryn demonstrates that the rise of pregnancy testing has had significant—and not always expected—impact and has led to changes in the ways in which we conceive of pregnancy itself.

When women's health wasn't a political issue... The surprising history every woman deserves to know. Women's health has long been seen as a divisive social issue. But behind inflammatory news headlines is an untold story that every man and woman is entitled to know. This factual and eye-opening story recounts how women's health devolved from being a medical issue, supported even by religious groups, to a divisive political debate. Exposing a chain of historic events, author Carol Roye reveals how only recently groups such as the Religious Right organized against abortion rights, using it as an influential political tool. Roye, an academic, longtime nurse practitioner and mother of six, also dispels many of the inaccurate, political arguments surrounding abortion and instead shines a light on the real concern at hand - public health. A Woman's Right to Know goes beyond the old argument of moral imperative vs. women's rights. Instead, it presents a third point of view in which people on either side of the issue have aligned in support of the true moral imperative - women's and children's health. Roye's book points us towards a solution and details the unlikely alliances and religious coalitions that are already working together to protect women's health, including access to contraception and abortion. This book supports neither pro-life nor pro-choice sentiments. Instead, it effectively affirms why we must move beyond the tired political debate and find common ground in order to protect the lives of women and children. A Woman's Right to Know is a stirring must-read for anyone concerned with women's rights, as well as those who want to be better informed about this critical public health issue.

"Now with a new afterword by the author"--Back cover.

By 1850, most contraceptive methods and abortion were illegal in America. But in the late 19th century, American women began demanding the right to prevent or terminate pregnancy. Gordon traces the story of this controversy, and includes new material on recent movements to outlaw abortion.

One of the most private decisions a woman can make, abortion is also one of the most contentious topics in American civic life. Protested at rallies and politicized in party platforms, terminating pregnancy is often characterized as a selfish decision by women who put their own interests above those of the fetus. This background of stigma and hostility has stifled women’s willingness to talk about abortion, which in turn distorts public and political discussion. To pry open the silence surrounding this public issue, Sanger distinguishes between abortion privacy, a form of nondisclosure based on a woman’s desire to control personal information, and abortion secrecy, a woman’s defense against the many harms of disclosure. Laws regulating abortion patients and providers treat abortion not as an acceptable medical decision—let alone a right—but as something disreputable, immoral, and chosen by mistake. Exploiting the emotional power of fetal imagery, laws require women to undergo ultrasound, a practice welcomed in wanted pregnancies but commandeered for use against women with unwanted pregnancies. Sanger takes these prejudicial views of women’s abortion decisions into the twenty-first century by uncovering new connections between abortion law and American culture and politics. New medical technologies, women’s increasing willingness to talk online and off, and the prospect of tighter judicial reins on state legislatures are shaking up the practice of abortion. As talk becomes more transparent and acceptable, women’s decisions about whether or not to become mothers will be treated more like those of other adults making significant personal choices.

An absorbing account of the origins of women's rights to property and children in the UK. A true story which reads like a Victorian novel. 'In law a husband and wife are one: and that one is the husband': Blackstone This was the law until well into the nineteenth century. Until They Are Seven is based on research into the historical background to the modern problems of child custody and access. The result is an absorbing tale of the origins of women's rights to their children and their property in which John Wroath recounts the brave moves by Henrietta Greenhill and Caroline Norton which led to the Infant Custody Act 1839 and Matrimonial Causes Act 1857-the rest being history. The story is also fascinating for the insights it gives into the private lives of several famous people of the time who were involved in or around these events-included among them the prime minister Lord Melbourne, the poet and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

Explains why lawyers seeking gender progress from primary legal materials should start with the common law.