The issue of abortion forces a confrontation with the effects of poverty and economic inequalities, local moral worlds, and the cultural and social perceptions of the female body, gender, and reproduction. Based on extensive original field research, this provocative collection presents case studies from Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and India. It includes powerful insights into the conditions and hard choices faced by women and the circumstances surrounding unplanned pregnancies. It explores the connections among poverty, violence, barriers to access, and the politics and strategies involved in abortion law reform. The contributors  analyze these issues within the broader conflicts surrounding women's status, gender roles, religion, nationalism and modernity, as well as the global politics of reproductive health. 

Content - List of Figures, Acknowledgements, Contributors, 1. Abortion in Asia: An overview, 2. Contraceptive use and unsafe abortion in rural Cambodia, 3. Between remembering and forgetting: Maintaining moral motherhood after late-term abortion, 4. Violence, poverty and 'weakness' - Interpersonal and institutional reasons why Burmese women on the Thai border utilise abortion, 5. Quality of care and pregnancy terminations for adolescent women in urban slums, Bangladesh, 6. Choosing abortion providers in rural Tamil Nadu: Balancing costs and quality of care, 7. Abortion in Vietnam: History, culture and politics collide in the era of doi moi, 8. Abortion and politics in Indonesia, 9. Access to abortion services in Malaysia: A rights-based approach, 10. Improving access to safe termination of pregnancy in Thailand: An analysis of policy developments from 1999 to 2006, 11. Epilogue: Further challenges, Glossary, Index