Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America

Leslie J. Reagan

Univ of California Press, Jul 9, 2012 - History - 392 pages

Dangerous Pregnancies tells the largely forgotten story of the German measles epidemic of the early 1960s and how it created national anxiety about dying, disabled, and “dangerous” babies. This epidemic would ultimately transform abortion politics, produce new science, and help build two of the most enduring social movements of the late twentieth century--the reproductive rights and the disability rights movements. At most a minor rash and fever for women, German measles (also known as rubella), if contracted during pregnancy, could result in miscarriages, infant deaths, and serious birth defects in the newborn. Award-winning writer Leslie J. Reagan chronicles for the first time the discoveries and dilemmas of this disease in a book full of intimate stories--including riveting courtroom testimony, secret investigations of women and doctors for abortion, and startling media portraits of children with disabilities. In exploring a disease that changed America, Dangerous Pregnancies powerfully illuminates social movements that still shape individual lives, pregnancy, medicine, law, and politics.

Contents

• INTRODUCTION Epidemics Reproduction: 1
• Dr Norman M Gregg Sydney Australia 1952: 50
• First photos of thalidomide babies 1962: 61
• Thalidomide baby with artificial limbs 1962: 62
• German measles party near London 1957: 85
• Sherri Finkbine with her children 1962: 87
• Sherri Finkbine 1962: 88
• Woman having blood drawn for test 1965: 92
• Women in hospital bed 1965: 93
• Rubella baby being tested 1965: 97
• THREE Wrongful Information: 105
• Election worker disinfecting voting booth 1964: 140
• Gatekeepers on the path to a therapeutic abortion 1969: 165
• FIVE If Unborn Babies Are Going to Be Protected: 180
• Taylor Residents United for childrens health South Side Chicago 1970: 190
• Voluntary Action to Stop Rubella booklet 1970: 192
• Save a Child in 70 billboard 1970: 193
• The Real Life Story of Ruby pamphlet cover 1971: 196
• A joyous family in The Real Life Story of Ruby back cover ca 197071: 198
• Rubella Robs the Cradle pamphlet English version 1970: 200
• Rubella Robs the Cradle pamphlet Spanish version 1970: 203
• NOTES: 243
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 331
• INDEX: 353

About the author

Professor Leslie J. Reagan graduated from the University of California, Davis, in 1981, and earned an M. A. (1985) and a Ph. D. (1991) from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She became a professor at the University of Illinois in 1992, before which she was a visiting research Fellow at the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Areas of specialty include the history of medicine, American women's history and sexuality. She has been published in a variety of scholarly journals (including Bulletin of the History of Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, and Journal of American History) and her book, When Abortion was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973 (1997) received numerous awards, including the Presidents Award for the Social Science History Association, the Law and Society Association's James Willard Hurst Prize for Best Book in Legal History, and the Choice Outstanding Book of the Year.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America
• Author: Leslie J. Reagan
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Univ of California Press, 2012
• ISBN: 0520274571, 9780520274570
• Length: 392 pages
• Subjects: History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / General; History / United States / 20th Century; History / United States / General; Medical / Forensic Medicine; Medical / Health Care Delivery; Medical / History; Medical / Infectious Diseases; Medical / Pathophysiology; Social Science / Abortion & Birth Control; Social Science / Gender Studies; Social Science / Women's Studies