
From Back Alley to the Border
Alicia Gutierrez-Romine
(Author)Description
During the 1930s the Pacific Coast Abortion Ring, a large, coast-wide, and comparatively safe abortion syndicate, became the target of law enforcement agencies, forcing those needing abortions across the border into Mexico and ushering in an era of Tijuana "abortion tourism" in the early 1950s. The movement south of the border ultimately compelled the California Supreme Court to rule its abortion statute "void for vagueness" in People v. Belous in 1969--four years before Roe v. Wade.
Gutierrez-Romine presents the first book focused on abortion on the West Coast and the U.S.-Mexico border and provides a new approach to studying how providers of illegal abortions and their clients navigated this underground network. In the post-Dobbs moment, From Back Alley to the Border shows us how little we have learned from history.
Product Details
Publisher | University of Nebraska Press |
Publish Date | November 01, 2020 |
Pages | 270 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781496211835 |
Dimensions | 9.0 X 6.0 X 0.8 inches | 1.2 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"Gutierrez-Romine's story of the [Pacific Coast Abortion Ring] offers fascinating insight into an elaborate crime syndicate that also provided women with an essential medical procedure."--Jennifer L. Holland, Pacific Historical Review
"[From Back Alley to the Border] effectively challenges readers to consider how legal and social frameworks come together to constrict people's reproductive autonomy both in the past and in the present."--Natalie Lira, California History
"Well-written and accessible to students, this book bears ample witness to the fact that although access to abortion (legal or illegal) can change drastically through time, the desperate need for the service does not."--A. H. Koblitz, Choice-- (11/1/2021 12:00:00 AM)
"Alicia Gutierrez-Romine skillfully walks the reader through the complicated world of criminal abortion and, in the process, reveals how racialized logics, changing family values, and evolving legal frameworks created the post-Roe v. Wade world we inherited. This transnational account offers rich historical context while insightfully illuminating dozens of fascinating individual stories of women's choice--and lack thereof. From Back Alley to the Border is an urgent and eloquently argued contribution to contemporary debates about the value of life, family, and reproductive freedom."--Suzanna Krivulskaya, assistant professor of history at California State University, San Marcos
"Gutierrez-Romine's important book on illegal abortion reminds us that those who have historically been labelled as 'criminals' cannot--and should not--be understood outside the context of the society and the circumstances in which they lived."--Erin N. Bush, assistant professor of U.S. and digital history at the University of North Georgia
Earn by promoting books