The issue whether abortions should be legalized or not is persistent today. Proponents argue that this is the right of a woman to decide if she wants to keep a baby, while opponents strongly believe that it is unacceptable to take away someone’s life. Political and juridical systems often have to get involved in this dispute. In his book, The Street Politics of Abortion: Speech, Violence, and America’s Culture Wars, Wilson discusses the critical and complicated role of the lawyers in anti-abortion social movements.
This topic of banning abortions is highly controversial in nature. Proponents claim that women are in power of their bodies, and they should have options. Unwanted children might be unhappy and might lead to the mother’s unemployment or even be the reason for domestic violence. Moreover, making the procedure illegal would unlikely to eliminate it because are still going to find ways to do it, but the process would become extremely risky. Opponents say that a fetus is a human being that feels pain and that a woman has to accept the responsibility of having a child.
In the text, the author talks about how social movements, lawyers, politicians, and policy are intertwined. Wilson describes a few cases when the activists were standing for their ideas to ban abortions. He provides an in-depth scholar analysis of how attorneys worked with these groups and what they were able to achieve. In particular, Wilson focuses on the way the anti-abortion movements were organized, held, and, eventually, institutionalized, and he primarily refers to the influence the lawyers had on the way the protests went.
This text fits with other works of literature and topics in this area. For example, recently, Alabama State has passed legislation that makes abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Moreover, seven other US states consider restricting abortions. It seems that there will be a lot of work for legal representatives as these bills might takeover Roe v. Wade. Lawyers work closely with the clinics, and they argue that banning abortions diminishes fundamental women’s rights, and, therefore, this is a violation. At the same time, anti-abortion activists seem satisfied with this tendency.
Wilson provides some insight into the process and, therefore, adds some details, which might be helpful for both scholars and the public to achieve a deeper understanding. A legal representative gets in a dubious position when he or she has to be a moderator in these situations. In the described cases, the main task for the representatives is to make law as flexible as possible, and this is one of the most complicated things to do. The activists stand for “God’s law” while the state uses “Man’s law.” Activists argue that having an abortion is acting against God’s will, which lies in the core of the US Constitution.
In the first place, it is challenging to decide on how to make these protests more organized. Activists say that there is freedom of speech, which allows them to speak out and express their opinions. At the same time, they sometimes tend to act aggressively as they surround clinics and escort female patients. They circle the building, so healthcare workers and patients are unable to get in and out of the hospitals. A significant controversy is that picketers demand to obey the religious rules while violating the state law. However, they still consider themselves simultaneously “good Christians” and “good law-abiding citizens.” At least, protesters agree to work with the state, which means that they are not against the system in general.
Lawyers work closely with the government to come up with the most appropriate way to organize the protests and make sure everyone is satisfied at the possible extent, and no rights are violated. Legal representatives see a state as a supporter rather than an enemy and, therefore, the committees try to come to different conceptions of the law so that there will be less conflict between morality and religion. Thus, lawyers actually engage law empowerment and show that there can be alternatives.
Wilson states that the primary goal of this book is to make a contribution in explaining the ideological power of law by offering a detailed analysis of “meaning work” and the construction of legality in abortion-conflict participant stories (283). The author provides excellent illustrations by presenting collected interviews and describing cases. The information in this book is definitely useful for the professionals because they might be able to find something applicable for their own cases and get decent examples of successful mediation, especially, taking in consideration the situation with passing new legislations. However, the role of the lawyer remains controversial for scholars because a lawyer can both pacify and fuel the radicalism in the activist clients.
To conclude, as long as the dispute on whether it is right to ban abortion continues, there will always be groups of people for or against this issue. Social movements will continue to happen, and the role of legal representatives will most likely remain dubious. However, they will still have to perform their complicated duty and try to manage the issue even though it is extremely difficult to find the right solutions.
Works Cited
Wilson, Joshua C. The Street Politics of Abortion: Speech, Violence, and Americas Culture Wars. Stanford Law Books, 2013.