Main description:

The landmark case Roe v. Wade redefined family: it is now commonplace for Americans to treat having children as a choice. But the historic decision also coincided with widening inequality, an ongoing trend that continues to make choice more myth than reality. In this new and timely history, Matthiesen shows how the effects of incarceration, for-profit healthcare, disease, and poverty have been worsened by state neglect, forcing most to work harder to maintain a family.

Contents:

Introduction
1. The Labor of Illegibility: Lesbian and Single Motherhood According to the Law
2. The Labor of Captivity: Incarcerated Mothers and Their Children
3. The Labor of Survival: Racism, Poverty, and the Uses of Infant Mortality Rates
4. The Labor of Risk: Or, How to Have a Family in the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
5. The Labor of "Choice": Navigating the Abortion Debate and Lifelines of Last Resort
Epilogue

Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index