Johanna Schoen, Choice & Coercion, Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare.

Johanna Schoen, Choice & Coercion, Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. $63.00 hardcover, $18.00 papercover.

As a society we are presented daily with "expert opinions" promoting the pros and cons of abortion, stem cell research, genetic testing, reproductive technologies, and right to die issues. Indeed it would seem that the "good old days" of the nuclear family has gone by the wayside. Enveloped by nostalgia, we tend to idealize the past as a time when the simple life prevailed, and our decisions were not mired in the outrageous ethical dilemma's induced by modern technology.

Johanna Schoen has shattered the myth of a simple and honorable American past. By mining historical data, Schoen exposes the brutal truth about the struggle of a culture engrossed with the morals of eugenics, women's reproductive rights and politics. Schoen initiates this saga by providing the reader with personal accounts and little known information about the history of sterilization and abortion in the United States. The horrific experiences of a population of women who were forced to accept abortion and sterilization based on poverty, disability and color are emotionally relayed by those who were subjected to this treatment. Schoen keenly weaves these stories with historical caveats highlighting the societal and political forces which shaped each decade from the 1850's to the present. She demonstrates a sharp connection between these forces and the ultimate experiences of the underprivileged women who were victims of judgment by the society at large.

Schoen additionally provides the reader with facts concerning the history and motivation behind the architects of contraceptives. Beginning in the southern United States and extending her treatise to the international stage, Schoen assesses the social, political, and financial incentives behind the initiators of global population control. The book contains an abundance of data regarding women's reproductive rights. Schoen is clearly enthusiastic about this topic. Periodically the reader's focus becomes clouded by the redundancy and broad scope of the material. The author appears to be outraged by the tactless actions of a nation that promotes "liberty and justice for all", and impels her indignation by employing far too many accounts of wrongdoing that eventually overwhelm the reader. Additionally, she compares past segments of American history to those of Nazi Germany. However analogous these episodes are to the horrors of Nazi experiments, Schoen employs this assessment almost to excess. However, in spite of these problems, this book is a "must read" for those who study gender and political issues. In particular, social workers, political scientists, historians, and students of population studies will find this book to be an invaluable resource.

Peggy Proudfoot McGuire, University of Louisville