On Talking Together about Ordinary Abortion

Abstract

The scarlet "A" that the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's seventeenth-century novel is forced to pin to her dress symbolizes the shame and social disgrace that she endures for conceiving a child out of adultery. In Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, & Politics of Ordinary Abortion, Katie Watson argues that abortion is our era's scarlet letter: a mark of stigma that is invisible yet no less shameful, causing unnecessary cultural silences around what is a remarkably common practice. In this brilliant new book, Watson draws on legal proceedings, bioethics literature, and personal experience; offers cultural and literary analysis; and uses her unique vantage point as a lawyer, bioethicist, and medical educator to develop a thought-provoking and thoroughly fresh perspective on one of the most divisive moral issues of our time.