ABSTRACT
Contemporary feminists consider the issues and policies relating to reproduction central to the status and opportunities of women. The effects of different physical demands on women and men in conceiving and bearing children are at the root of most social conceptions of gender roles. It seems elementary to feminists that only through the freedom and power to make decisions about her body can a woman make choices about other areas of her life. Surprisingly, concentrated efforts to shape a public policy that will safeguard and enhance women’s freedom and choices in reproduction are relatively recent, even among feminists. Although reproductive issues have been in the public policy arena for nearly two hundred years, they usually have been peripheral to other, more central feminist demands, and feminists have been on the periphery of the public debate. The abortion issue, especially, has changed that.
