Author Biography

Elyse Ona Singer is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Past Is Never Dead ... : Reproductive Governance in Modern Mexico
2. The Right to Sin: Abortion Rights in the Shadow of the Church
3. Being (a) Patient: The Making of Public Abortion
4. Abortion as Social Labor: Protection and Responsibility in Public Abortion Care
5. At the Limit of Rights: Abortion in the Extralegal Sphere
Conclusion

Review

"This engrossing ethnography shows legal abortion in Mexico City to be a much-needed expansion of healthcare—and a site where norms of 'good' and 'responsible' womanhood are perpetuated rather than challenged. By sharing patients, staff, and activist experiences of this conundrum with nuance and care, Singer enables readers to think in new ways about what reproductive justice might truly mean."—Emily Wentzell, Associate Professor of Anthropology, The University of Iowa
"Elyse Ona Singer's beautiful, riveting account takes us inside Mexico's reckoning with reproductive rights. Her moving, honest stories from Mexico City abortion clinics show staff and patients acting with humility, humanity, and a healthy dose of ethical ambivalence. Lawful Sins is a brilliant, timely ethnography, offering insights into the tangled relations between Church and state as each strives to control reproductive lives and bodies."—Lynn M. Morgan, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College
"In lucid and lively prose, Elyse Ona Singer tells a surprising story about abortion in Mexico. Yes, in Mexico City abortion is now legal. But the women who seek it refuse to live as autonomous rights bearers. Instead, they reckon with abortion only in relation to others: their families and God. Crucial reading for anyone engaged in debates about contemporary personhood, autonomy and reproductive governance."—Elizabeth F.S. Roberts, Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan
"Elyse Ona Singer provides an antidote to rigid U.S. abortion discourse by inviting the reader to delve into Mexico's abortion climate—characterized as it is by its endless shades of gray and nuance. ... despite being an 'outsider' in her research, Singer paints a vivid and moving account that indicates a deep respect for and desire to understand both Mexico and its people."—Andréa Becker, Gender & Society
"An incredibly timely book,Lawful Sinsis an important intervention in hemispheric and indeed global debates about women and reproduction. Highly recommended."—B. A. Lucero, CHOICE
"At such a turbulent time for abortion access in the Americas, Singer's book offers a chance for reflection and deeper understanding of the many issues at stake....Lawful Sins invites the reader to think beyond rights and engage instead with justice-oriented frameworks."—Lucía Guerra Reyes, American Ethnologist
"A central contribution of Singer's book is the clear window it provides into the everyday goings-on inside Mexico City's ILE clinics. The reader gets a vivid sense of clinicians' and patients' experiences at clinics, as well as the infrastructural problems that make abortion difficult to provide and to access, including resource shortages, long wait times, limited appointments, and challenging commutes."—Natalie L. Kimball, Hispanic American Historical Review

Long Description

Mexico is at the center of the global battle over abortion. In 2007, a watershed reform legalized the procedure in the national capital, making it one of just three places across Latin America where it was permitted at the time. Abortion care is now available on demand and free of cost through a pioneering program of the Mexico City Ministry of Health, which has served hundreds of thousands of women. At the same time, abortion laws have grown harsher in several states outside the capital as part of a coordinated national backlash. In this book, Elyse Ona Singer argues that while pregnant women in Mexico today have options that were unavailable just over a decade ago, they are also subject to the expanded reach of the Mexican state and the Catholic Church over their bodies and reproductive lives. By analyzing the moral politics of clinical encounters in Mexico City's public abortion program, Lawful Sins offers a critical account of the relationship among reproductive rights, gendered citizenship, and public healthcare. With timely insights on global struggles for reproductive justice, Singer reorients prevailing perspectives that approach abortion rights as a hallmark of women's citizenship in liberal societies.

Review Quote

"This engrossing ethnography shows legal abortion in Mexico City to be a much-needed expansion of healthcare--and a site where norms of 'good' and 'responsible' womanhood are perpetuated rather than challenged. By sharing patients, staff, and activist experiences of this conundrum with nuance and care, Singer enables readers to think in new ways about what reproductive justice might truly mean."--Emily Wentzell, Associate Professor of Anthropology, The University of Iowa

Details