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'Abortion Politics in American States' edited by Mary C. Segers and Timothy A. Byrnes is reviewed.

This essay offers a new perspective on abortion politics by proposing that the background debate can be productively shifted from the question of the legal status of fetuses as potential persons to their religious status as potential souls (within a Christian framework). Such a deliberate turn toward metaphysics as an appropriate terrain for political contestation runs counter to a prevailing liberal doctrine -- best articulated by John Rawls -- that metaphysics, especially perfectionist notions, have little or no place within liberal political calculations. Rawls's shortcomings on the abortion debate are surveyed along with those of other recent commentators; & Christian theology on abortion is challenged by way of introducing some of Georges Bataille's notions of political economy. The Japanese practice of mizuko kuyo under Buddhism is offered at the end as a comparative foil to Western political conflicts over abortion. Adapted from the source document.

The intensity of opposition to legal abortion in the US is described, & reasons behind the movement to repeal abortion reforms are analyzed & compared to reform movements in GB. The radical climate of the late 1960s & early 1970s favored liberalization of abortion statutes in the US, as did the attitudes of US MDs & influential Catholics. The progress of abortion reforms in GB was more moderate, a situation caused by the limited power of interpretation of English courts, the greater restrictions on clinical practice in GB, & the greater tendency toward traditionalism among British MDs. However, the increasing strength of conservative politics in the US in the late 1970s was reflected in the increased strength & organization of antiabortion sentiments, & in the movement to press for a Constitutional amendment supported by "right to life" & other antiabortion groups. D. Dunseath.