The Moral Veto: Framing Contraception, Abortion, and Cultural Pluralism in the United States

by Gene Burns

• ISBN13: 9780521552097
• ISBN10: 0521552095
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Why have legislative initiatives occurred on such controversial issues as contraception and abortion at times when activist movements had demobilized and the public seemed indifferent? Why have abortion and contraception sometimes been framed as matters of medical practice, and at other times as matters of moral significance? Based on archival and sociological research, and speaking to issues in the study of culture, social movements, and legal change, The Moral Veto examines what the history of controversies over morally charged issues tells us about cultural pluralism in the U.S.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Framing contraception within moral worldviews: the early, radical birth control Movement

2. The mainstreaming of birth control: a new alliance with eugenics and medicine

3. Dennett's moral worldview and the catholic moral veto: unsuccessful frames for contraception

4. Abortion before controversy: quiet reform within a medical, humanitarian frame

5. Abortion and legislative stalemate: the weakness and strength of the medical, humanitarian frame

6. Looking back: limiting frames, moral vetoes, and cultural Pluralism

Notes

Works cited.