Abortion Market - Buying and Selling Access in the Era Before Roe

The abortion market was a powerful economic force in American life. Before legalization lowered the cost, one million women each year collectively paid upward of $750 million for abortions. In this illuminating book, Katherine Parkin reveals the strength of a massive consumer market that involved loans, advertising, and travel, as well as the costs associated with the procedure itself.
Laying the foundation for the emergence of a public market that facilitated the buying and selling of abortions, wealthy population control ideologues encouraged positive public discourse on abortion, funded medical studies, and waged legal battles. White, middle- and upper-class women sought out abortions and paid exorbitantly for them. Male entrepreneurs emerged to capitalize on the booming market and profit from the incredible demand. Advertising on billboards and in college newspapers, men profited by providing the phone number, getting kickbacks for delivering patients, and arranging for women's travel to Mexico, Puerto Rico, England, and Japan. Students demanded abortion access and organized when it came at a steep cost, especially to the poorest among them. Abortion providers in Kansas, California, and Washington, D.C. attracted out-of-state consumers, with some women aided by their universities or by medical insurance. Between 1970 and 1973, entrepreneurs, providers, and hundreds of thousands of women seeking to buy abortions headed to New York City, heralded by some as the "abortion capital of the world."
While we may have imagined that securing an abortion was best understood as a hidden, woman-only experience, The Abortion Market reveals the extent to which businesses and businessmen openly selling abortion access shaped the experience of buying abortions for millions of women.

Info autore

Katherine J. Parkin is Professor of History at Monmouth University. She is author of Women at the Wheel: A Century of Buying, Driving, and Fixing Cars and Food Is Love: Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Katherine J Parkin, Katherine J. Parkin, Parkin Katherine J.
• Editore: University of pennsylvania pr
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 01.09.2025
• EAN: 9781512828207
• ISBN: 978-1-5128-2820-7
• Pagine: 320
• Categorie: Saggistica > Storia > Altro; Scienze naturali, medicina, informatica, tecnica > Medicina > Tematiche generali; USA, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, 20th Century, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Abortion & Birth Control, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, History of Medicine, Economic history, Business innovation, United States of America, USA, Ethical issues & debates, Gender studies: women, History of the Americas, Gender studies: women and girls, Birth control, contraception, family planning, Ethical issues, topics and debates