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97 Harv. L. Rev 1246 (1983-1984)
The Law Giveth: Legal Aspects of the Abortion Controversy

handle is hein.journals/hlr97 and id is 1264 raw text is: BOOK NOTE THE LAW GIVETH: LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE ABORTION CONTRO- VERSY. By Barbara Milbauer, in collaboration with Bert N. Obrentz. New York: Atheneum. 1983. Pp. xiii, 363. $21.95. Over the past decade, the emotional conflict between supporters and opponents of legalized abortion has divided America. This con- flict has caused many Americans to reexamine both their own beliefs and the goals and priorities of their society. At the same time, how- ever, the conflict has provoked a bitter and sometimes thoughtless debate - a debate in which the contending forces frequently have focused more on each other's integrity than on the profoundly difficult issues in dispute. Missing too often from this conflict have been sincere attempts by those on either side to appreciate and address thoughtfully the very real and deeply felt concerns of their opponents. Until both sides make such efforts, the wounds opened by the abortion debate will not begin to heal. Barbara Milbauer's The Law Giveth is a fervent and sincere de- fense of abortion rights. Unfortunately, however, it exemplifies and aggravates the destructive aspects of the abortion debate. Milbauer's book is a book of extremes - extreme positions, extreme characteri- zations, and extreme statements. As such, it can only further emo- tionalize and distort an issue already fraught with emotion and dis- tortion. The Law Giveth is poorly written. Milbauer appears to have paid little attention to organization or clarity; as a result, the reader rarely knows where he is, where he has been, or where the author hopes to take him. Milbauer fails to discuss a single major case or issue without repeated and maddening detours during which she flatters those she likes and vilifies those she dislikes, vents a bit of personal outrage at a viewpoint, judge, or event, or tosses in fragmented, unrelated policy arguments. Milbauer's analysis of important legal developments regarding abortion is particularly flawed. She painstakingly details the most frivolous aspects of each case history, yet she completely ignores a great deal of extremely important information. In her discussion of Roe v. Wade' (pp. 29, 36-37, 42, 44-46, 52-58), for example, Mil- bauer presents long, complimentary portrayals of Jane Roe's attorneys (pp. 12-13, 27, 33, 5 2-54), meticulously reconstructs their arguments, and approvingly describes how courts struck down the abortion laws of all fifty states. Yet she tells the reader barely a word about the case presented by Texas or the arguments rejected by the courts. Indeed, an unsuspecting reader would find it difficult to believe that 1 410 U.S. 113 (1973). 1246

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