ABSTRACT
One of the most persistent debates which besets feminist theory, and in particular feminist legal theory, is the significance to be attached to women's difference. The enterprise of legal method as traditionally defined operates on the basis of erasure in the quest to generate coherent content and stable categories. The articulated goals of coherence and stability are facilitated doctrinally through the freezing properties of precedent and stare decisis. The chapter provides a critique of West's account of radical feminism and abortion. The textual strategies West pursues are designed to set a very distinct cast on the visage of feminist legal theory. The various textual conflations and juxtapositions serve to situate cultural feminism as the pretty and therefore palatable position for feminist legal theory. Central to West's project is restoring the liberating potential of intercourse and motherhood within feminist legal theory.
