Book Review: Abortion in the United States

This book is a report of a conference, consisting mostly of doctors, which was held at Arden House under the sponsorship of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the New York Academy of Medicine. Among the thirty-nine participants many names well known in medical and demographic circles are to be found-names such as Alan Guttmacher, Harold Rosen, Abraham Stone, P. I. Whelpton, and the late Alfred Kinsey, to pick a few at random. The first 184 pages consist of the report proper, edited by MIary Steichen Calderone, medical director of the Federation. This is followed by a summary of the abortion and the birth-control laws of the United States, a discussion of abortion in Japan, Germany, Finland, and the Soviet Union, and the presentation of a few characteristics of the 5,293 women interviewed by the staff of the Institute for Sex Research as set forth in its monograph on Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion. The book concludes with a selected bibliography on the subject of the conference