Dangerous Pregnancies—Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America

"Compellingly attentive to medical and legal structures, but also to dramatic human choices, Dangerous Pregnancies provides a boldly argued and carefully documented historical grounding for critical debates in public policy and women's rights."--David Roediger, author of How Race Survived U.S. History

"Both a gripping story of the activism of middle-class mothers and an insightful study of abortion law reform, Dangerous Pregnancies is a compelling argument about reproductive rights, immunization, and the public health power of the state. A terrific book."--Molly Ladd-Taylor, author of "Bad" Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America and Mother-Work: Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890-1930.

"Accessible and clearly written, Reagan's illuminating account of German measles is immensely valuable both in itself and as a window into larger issues of gender, public health, and bioethics."--Charles Rosenberg, author of The Cholera Years and No Other Gods: On Science and American Social Thought

Leslie J. Reagan is Professor of History, with affiliations in gender and women's studies, law, media and cinema studies, and medicine, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States 1867-1973 (UC Press) and coeditor of Medicine's Moving Pictures: Medicine, Health, and Bodies in American Film and Television.