Abortion CL

British journalist and feminist Hadley has composed a stunningly comprehensive work that argues that abortion should be legal, accessible, affordable and accepted the world over. Hadley's basic tenet is that once governments chip away at the right to abortion, they are better situated to take away any and all rights of women. To support her assertion, she spans the globe, reporting on legal maneuverings pressure from religious authorities, notably the Catholic church and Islam. She writes of attitudes toward sex in Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, Germany, Holland, India, Ireland, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Russia and the U.S. She also looks at a wide spectrum of often murky issues, such as pregnancy and AIDS, prenatal testing for birth defects and the ever-shortening period of time required before a fetus is viable outside the womb. Unlike some pro-choicers, Hadley does not consider abortion a necessary evil. To think so, she believes, is to concede to the pro-life movement the moral high ground in what she hesitates to call the abortion ""debate."" It's not a debate at all, Hadley writes: ""The perspectives seldom overlap: that's why arguments about abortion so often sound like people shouting at phantoms--there is an absolute abyss of division and almost no perceptible common ground."" Hadley's numerous arguments make sense and are presented in a style that is brisk and flowing, one that turns the many statistics and laws she cites into an easy, enlightening read. (Nov.)