Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Amid a volatile abortion landscape in the United States, Our Lives goes beyond polling and politics to uncover the raw messiness of everyday Americans' abortion attitudes. Drawing on nearly three hundred in-depth interviews with a randomly selected, closely representative set of US residents in the lead-up to and aftermath of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, sociologist Tricia Colleen Bruce uncovers the ambivalence, loyalties, doubts, contradictions, personal ties, and quiet stories undergirding moral and legal views on abortion.
Listening to everyday Americans complicates straightforward pro-choice and pro-life talking points and reveals something more about contemporary judgments as to what makes a good life, a good person, a good government, and a good society. How Americans think about abortion, Bruce shows, turns out to say a lot about how Americans think about themselves, each other, and the society they imagine, create, and live in—together.
Tricia Colleen Bruce is a sociologist and past president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion whose books include Faithful Revolution, American Parishes, Polarization in the US Catholic Church, and the award-winning Parish and Place.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Our Memories
2. Our Allegiances
3. Our Experiences
4. Our Judgment
5. Our Ambivalence
An Exegesis: Our “Good”
Conclusion: Our Thinking About Abortion
Appendix A: The Study
Appendix B: The Interview Protocol
Notes
References
Index