Bishops and Bodies

Reproductive Care in American Catholic Hospitals

LORI FREEDMAN

FOREWORD BY DEBRA

“

STULBERG

Bishops and Bodies is poised to make a significant impact not just in social science and medical humanities circles, but in broader public conversations about healthcare, reproductive rights, and the place of religion in society.”

—Jessica Martucci, author of Back to the Breast: Natural Motherhood and Breastfeeding in America

One out of every six patients in the United States is treated in a Catholic hospital that follows the policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. These policies prohibit abortion, sterilization, contraception, some treatments for miscarriage and gender confirmation, and other reproductive care, undermining hard-won patients’ rights to bodily autonomy and informed decision-making. Drawing on rich interviews with patients and providers, this book reveals both how the bishops’ directives operate and how people inside Catholic hospitals navigate the resulting restrictions on medical practice. In doing so, Bishops and Bodies fleshes out a vivid picture of how The Church’s stance on sex, reproduction, and “life” itself manifests in institutions that affect us all.

LORI FREEDMAN is a sociologist, bioethicist, and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences.

DEBRA STULBERG is professor and department chair of family medicine at the University of Chicago.

Critical Issues in Health and Medicine

Risk and Adaptation in a Cancer Cluster Town

LAURA HART

“Hart does an excellent job weaving local community narratives in with sociological insights and theories of risk and belonging. Risk and Adaptation in a Cancer Cluster Town offers a clear and important contribution to in-depth community studies of industrial risks and environmental health disaster.”

—Peter Little, author of Toxic Town: IBM, Pollution, and Industrial Risks

188 pp 2 color and 2 b/w images

6 x 9

978-1-9788-2353-2 paper $26.95S

978-1-9788-2354-9 cloth $120.00SU

June 2023

Environmental Studies • Public Health

In Risk and Adaptation in a Cancer Cluster Town, Laura Hart examines another understudied dimension of community inaction: the role of emotion and its relationship to community experiences of social belonging and inequality. Using a cancer cluster community in Northwest Ohio as a case study, Hart advances an approach to risk that grapples with the complexities of community belonging, disconnect, and disruption in the wake of suspected industrial pollution. Her research points to a fear driven not only by economic anxiety, but also by a fear of losing security within the community—a sort of pride that is not only about status, but connectedness. Hart reveals the importance of this social form of risk— the desire for belonging and the risk of not belonging—ultimately arguing that this is consequential to how people make judgements and respond to issues. Within this context where the imperative for self-protection is elusive, affected families experience psychosocial and practical conflicts as they adapt to cancer as a way of life. Considering a future where debates about risk and science will inevitably increase, Hart considers possibilities for the democratization of risk management and the need for transformative approaches to environmental justice.

LAURA HART is an assistant professor of sociology at Missouri State University.

Nature Society and Culture