Synopses & Reviews
"
Book of the Week ... Why don't more OB/GYNs do abortions? Lori Freedman's new book,
Willing and Unable, is the most thorough answer yet to that question."
--Emily Bazelon, XX Factor, Slate.com "Whether pro-choice or pro-life, readers will benefit from the authentic face that Freedman provides for this sociopolitically charged topic... Highly recommended."
--CHOICE "This is a finely crafted and emotionally moving study which both documents and provides a persuasive explanation for the precarious nature of abortion provision in the United States today. The book will make an excellent addition to the required reading lists not only for courses in health & medicine and sex & gender, but for courses in work & organizations, social conflict, and social movements as well."
--Lyn H. Lofland, Research Professor of Sociology, University of California, Davis "It should be of greatest interest to those considering obstetric careers, those involved in medical education, and advocates on either side of the abortion question."
--World Medical & Health Policy "A shortage of abortion providers is one of the greatest challenges facing the abortion rights movement today. In this well-researched and gracefully written book, Lori Freedman perceptively explores the reasons for this shortage, with the threat of violence being only one of several contributing factors. Willing and Unable is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the complex status of abortion provision in contemporary American medicine"
.--Carole Joffe, author, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us "Lori Freedman's qualitative research is critical to understanding why only half of ob-gyns who intend to do elective abortions when starting residency actually offer them for patients once in practice. The depth and sophistication of her analyses make her findings especially profound and will shake this area of research, abortion training and provision, to its core. What she has uncovered--the complex ways stigmatization affects ob-gyns in practice--will inform many people and programs in reproductive health research, medical training, and the reproductive rights movement. With these insights, we will be better able to help ob-gyns overcome obstacles to provision in practice. We will also better understand where in medicine and medical practice we can focus our efforts of mainstreaming abortion."
--Jody Steinauer, MD, Research Director, Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning, University of California, San Francisco, and Founder of Medical Students for Choice
Review
"Lori Freedman's qualitative research is critical to understanding why only half of ob-gyns who intend to do elective abortions when starting residency actually offer them for patients once in practice. The depth and sophistication of her analyses make her findings especially profound and will shake this area of research, abortion training and provision, to its core. What she has uncovered--the complex ways stigmatization affects ob-gyns in practice--will inform many people and programs in reproductive health research, medical training, and the reproductive rights movement. With these insights, we will be better able to help ob-gyns overcome obstacles to provision in practice. We will also better understand where in medicine and medical practice we can focus our efforts of mainstreaming abortion."
--Jody Steinauer, MD, Research Director, Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning, University of California, San Francisco, and Founder of Medical Students for Choice
Review
"A shortage of abortion providers is one of the greatest challenges facing the abortion rights movement today. In this well-researched and gracefully written book, Lori Freedman perceptively explores the reasons for this shortage, with the threat of violence being only one of several contributing factors.
Willing and Unable is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the complex status of abortion provision in contemporary American medicine"
.--Carole Joffe, author, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us
Review
"Freedman provides an historical context for the relationship between abortion and American medicine and details what she has termed as "the institutional buck-passing" that has marginalized abortion practice and isolated it to free-standing clinics."
--Conscience
Review
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2011
Review
"...a well written investigation of the reasons behind the shortage of abortion providers and an infomative read for anyone contemplating how to change the current system."
--Family Medicine
Review
“Dorff and Zoloth have assembled contributions that shed light on Jews, biology, and genes that are engagingly revelatory for Jew and non-Jew alike.”—Arthur L. Caplan, Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor of Bioethics and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center
Review
“A brilliant combination of science and philosophy that deepens ones awe for the genetics of life and demonstrates how insights from Jewish thought can help address the vexing questions that arise because of scientists new capabilities to test for genes and alter them in the effort to prevent or cure disease.”—Neil S. Wenger, director of the UCLA Health Ethics Center
Synopsis
Willing and Unable explores the social world where abortion politics and mainstream medicine collide. The author interviewed physicians of obstetrics and gynecology around the United States to find out why physicians rarely integrate abortion into their medical practice. While abortion stigma, violence, and political contention provide some explanation, her findings demonstrate that willing physicians are further encumbered by a variety of barriers within their practice environments.
Structural barriers to the mainstream practice of abortion effectively institutionalize the buck-passing of abortion patients to abortion clinics. As the author notes, "Public-health-minded HMOs and physician practices could significantly change the world of abortion care if they stopped outsourcing it."
Drawing from forty in-depth interviews, the book presents a challenge to a commonly held assumption that physicians decide whether or not to provide abortion based on personal ideology. Physician narratives demonstrate how their choices around learning, doing, and even having abortions themselves disrupt the pro-choice/pro-life moral and political binary.
Synopsis
The limited choices of pro-choice physicians in their practices
Synopsis
Well aware of Jews having once been the victims of Nazi eugenics policies, many Jews today have an ambivalent attitude toward new genetics and are understandably wary of genetic forms of identity and intervention. At the same time, the Jewish tradition is strongly committed to medical research designed to prevent or cure diseases.
Jews and Genes explores this tension against the backdrop of various important developments in genetics and bioethics—new advances in stem cell research; genetic mapping, identity, testing, and intervention; and the role of religion and ethics in shaping public policy.
Jews and Genes brings together leaders in their fields, from all walks of Judaism, to explore these most timely and intriguing topics—the intricacies of the genetic code and the wonders of life, along with cutting-edge science and the ethical issues it raises.
About the Author
Elliot N. Dorff is rector and Sol and Anne Dorff Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles and past chair of the Society of Jewish Ethics. He is the author or editor of numerous award-winning books, including
Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics (JPS, 1998). Laurie Zoloth is a professor of religious studies and on the Jewish studies faculty at Weinberg College and is a professor of medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, both at Northwestern University. She is the author or editor of six books, including
The Ethics of Encounter: A Jewish Discussion of Social Justice. Mark S. Frankel is director of the Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights, and Law Program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.