The documents in The Abortion Rights Controversy, each introduced by the authors with a succinct and smart explanatory paragraph, are arranged chronologically and track the narrative in their Roe v. Wade book. The Abortion Rights Controversy begins with a chapter on the history of the criminalization of abortion, producing excerpts from the Seneca Falls Convention through the Comstock Act. In the chapter's introduction, the authors explain how, until the nineteenth century, events surrounding reproduction fell within a woman's private domain. This changed as women began to demand full citizenship, the primarily male medical profession sought to consolidate, and state power grew after the civil war. They posit that early abortion laws such as that enacted in Connecticut in 1821 (which is excerpted in the chapter) were primarily intended to protect women from unscrupulous abortionists. The passage of later laws by the majority of states were often spearheaded by elite doctors and intended to control female sexuality as well as protecting the life of a "quicked" fetus.

     One problem with this first chapter is that the authors attempt to convey the nineteenth-century debate over the role of the state by using Elizabeth Cady Stanton's address to the Seneca Falls convention as an example of an argument for limited state action and Horace Mann's call for compulsory education as an example of an argument for state action. Yet Stanton's excerpt does not support the authors' contention and her larger writings on the role of the state often advocate for state action. Further, given the authors' thesis that abortion fell within a woman's private sphere before the mid-nineteenth century and the important role that midwives played, I would have expected to see an excerpt from Martha Ballard's famous diary or the writings of another mid-wife.

     The second chapter examines the movement for and against birth control and the legalization of abortion. It takes us from the early twentieth century through Griswold. Excerpts include Theodore Roosevelt's pro-natalist argument in "On American Motherhood" through Augustus Hand's decision in U.S. v. One Package (1936), which found that a doctor's importation from Japan of contraceptives did not violate the Comstock Act. The chapter also provides powerful and varied excerpts from the leading birth control advocates of the era including Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett. Surprisingly, however, Emma Goldman's writings are missing, who was of course one of the most radical proponents of reproductive rights and from whom Sanger eventually sought to disassociate herself, in an attempt to position birth control as part of mainstream politics.

     With this early history set forth, chapter three discusses the road to Roe and positions the case as part of second wave feminism and the continuing battle for women's equality. A nice selection of excerpts from Friedan, NOW, and Shirley Chisholm are included. Importantly, it also provides the reader with small portions from the various amicus briefs filed in Roe. Chapter Four focuses upon Roe in the Supreme Court, producing portions from the oral arguments before the Court, the Court's conference notes, and additional briefs. The various amicus briefs remind the reader of the multiple constitutional theories, besides privacy, available to the Court. One of the most compelling arguments, presented in a joint amicus brief, argued that abortion regulations violate the Thirteenth Amendment by compelling a pregnant women to engage in involuntary servitude through state enforced compulsory pregnancy. Having been reminded of this pointed argument, all but lost to history, I provided it to my Gender and the Law class. This resulted in a lively discussion of the validity of this radical argument.

     The remaining chapters bring us through the narrative of abortion cases that chipped away at Roe, including McRae, Webster, and Casey. From a historical perspective, these chapters are less informative as they primarily focus upon excerpts from legal briefs and the Court's opinions, losing some of the cultural richness of previous chapters that included a wider variety of primary sources. Such absence renders the abortion debate as court focused, legalistic, and unmoored to larger social movements.

     With the Court's devastating decision in Gonzalez v. Carhart (2007), it is even more crucial to historically situate Roe and its progeny as part of more than a century long struggle for women's equality. The Abortion Rights Controversy makes this history easily accessible and poignant without simplifying it.