In the late 1960s and early 1970s, advocates of legal abortion mostly used the term rights when describing their agenda. But, after Roe v. Wade, their determination to develop a respectable, non-confrontational movement encouraged many of them to use the word choice-an easier concept for people weary of various rights movements. At first, the distinction in language didn't seem to make much difference-the law seemed to guarantee both. But, in the years since, the change has become enormously important.
In Beggars and Choosers, Solinger shows how historical distinctions between women of color and white women, between poor and middle-class women, were used in new ways during the era of "choice." Politicians and policy makers began to exclude certain women from the class of "deserving mothers" by using the language of choice to create new public policies concerning everything from Medicaid funding for abortions to family tax credits, infertility treatments, international adoption, teen pregnancy, and welfare. Solinger argues that the class-and-race-inflected guarantee of "choice" is a shaky foundation on which to build our notions of reproductive freedom. Her impassioned argument is for reproductive rights as human rights-as a basis for full citizenship status for women.
"A trenchant and persuasive critique of the rhetoric of choice in framing women's reproductive rights. Rickie Solinger reveals how the language of choice has turned motherhood into a class privilege and makes an eloquent case for framing the issue in terms of rights --entitlements that are due to all citizens irrespective of their resources."
Evelyn Nakano Glenn, editor of Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency
"With passion and verve, Rickie Solinger defends motherhood, no matter a woman's class, race, or marital status, against those who would limit feminism to the marketplace of choice. Her brilliant interweaving of the histories of adoption, abortion, and welfare since the 1960s is must reading for untangling today's politics of family, poverty, and women's rights."
