Mourned Choices and Grievable Lives: The Anti‐Abortion Movement's Influence in Defining the Abortion Experience in Australia Since the 1960s

This article provides a genealogy of foetocentric grief, an emotion that permeates accounts of abortion in Australia across multiple discursive sites. Foetocentric grief represents women as indelibly mourning their ‘unborn children’ after abortion. The emotion first came to prominence in anti‐abortion activism of the mid‐1980s. Focus on the purported consequences of abortion for women enabled anti‐abortionists to respond to charges that they were unsympathetic towards women who have abortions. Foetocentric grief also transcribes the primary claim of the anti‐abortion movement – that abortion entails a mother's destruction of her unborn child – onto the very experience of abortion. Since the mid‐1980s, foetocentric grief has moved outside the anti‐abortion movement to dominate accounts of the abortion experience in the print media as well as, surprisingly, mainstream pro‐choice activism. This article maps the convergence of these trends and examines the political and regulatory effects of foetocentric grief. It argues that foetocentric grief is a culturally enforced emotion that discursively recuperates the figure of the aborting woman to normative regimes of pregnancy and femininity, where pregnant women are envisaged as already mothers to autonomous foetal‐subjects.     

Book reviews

INTERNATIONAL STABILITY: MILITARY, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DIMENSIONS. Dale J. Hekhuis, Charles G. McClintock and Arthur L. Burns (eds.). New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964. Pp. xii + 296. £3.

THE AUSTRALIAN BALANCE OF PAYMENTS: A STUDY OF POST‐WAR DEVELOPMENTS. G. D. McColl. Melbourne University Press, 1965. Pp. xiii + 180. 45/‐.

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WORLD TRADE: PROCEEDINGS OF A. CHATHAM HOUSE CONFERENCE, BELLAGIO, 16–24 SEPTEMBER 1963. For the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Oxford University Press, 1964. Pp. 241. 49/6.

JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD TRADE. Warren Huns‐berger. New York, Harper & Row, for the Council on Foreign Relations, 1964. Pp. xvii + 492. $9.95.

MILITARY INSTITUTIONS AND POWER IN THE NEW STATES. William Gutteridge. London, Pall Mall Press, 1964. Pp. viii, 182. 25/‐.

AUSTRALIA'S DEFENCE. T. B. Millar. Melbourne University Press, 1965. Pp. x + 198. 20/‐ (paperbound).

QUIET DECISION. A STUDY OF SIR GEORGE PEARCE. Peter Heydon. Melbourne University Press, 1965. 67/6.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDONESIA 1951–1963. Donald Hindley. University of California Press, 1964. Pp. xviii + 380. $8.50.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDONESIA. Justus M. van der Kroef. University of British Columbia, 1965. Pp. viii + 347. $5.50 (paperbound).

INDONESIA. J. D. Legge. New Jersey, Prentice‐Hall Inc., 1964. Pp. viii + 184. $1.95.

SOVIET JEWRY AND HUMAN RIGHTS. Isi Leibler. Melbourne, Human Rights Publications, 1965. Pp. 78. 10/6d.

THE CHINESE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. Victor Purcell. Second Edition, Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1965. Pp. xvi + 623. £6/6/‐.

THE THIRD CHINA. C. P. FitzGerald. F. W. Cheshire for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1965. Pp. vii + 109. 13/6.

SOUTH AND EAST ASIA SINCE 1800. Victor Purcell. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1965. Pp. x + 228. 25/‐ stg.     

Book reviews

Glen St J. Barclay, Friends in High Places. Australian‐American Diplomatic Relations Since 1945. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, pp 245, $25.00.

Leonie Foster, High Hopes: The Men and Motives of the Australian Round Table. Melbourne University Press in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1986, pp.xviii+294. $25.00.

Ritchie Ovendale, The English‐Speaking Alliance: Britain, the United States, the Dominions and the Cold War, 1945–51. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1985, ppxt309. $60.00.

Australian Institute of Urban Affairs, Review of Australian Assistance to the Indonesian Water Supply and Sanitation Sector. A report for the Australian Development Assistance Bureau, January 1986. pp.xxxiii + 305. $ 16.00.

Malcolm Templeton, Defence and Security: What New Zealand Needs. Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University, Wellington, 1986, pp.62. $NZ11.00.

Philip Eldridge, Dean Forbes and Doug Porter, Australian Overseas Aid: Future Directions. Croom Helm, Sydney, 1986, pp. 284. £16.95.

Christopher Clapham, Third World Politics. An Introduction. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1985, pp.197. $39.95 (cloth), $17.50 (paper).

William Tordoff, Government and Politics in Africa, Macmillan, London, 1984, pp.xix+352. £7.95.

Richard Hodder‐Williams. An Introduction to the Politics of Tropical Africa. George Allen and Unwin, London, Boston and Sydney, 1984. $45.00 (cloth), $ 17.95 (paper).

D. K. Fieldhouse, Black Africa 1945–1980: Economic Decolonization and Arrested Development. Allen and Unwin, London, 1986, pp.xix & 260. $32.50.

Neil Kinnock, Making Our Way. Investing in Britain's Future. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1986, pp.viii + 200. $13.95.

Andrew J. Taylor, The Trade Unions and the Labour Party. Croom Helm, London, 1987, pp. 320. £27.50.

Alistair I. Johnston, China and Arms Control: Emerging Issues and Interest in the 1980s. The Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament, Ottawa, 1986, pp.85. $US12.00.

Tim Huxley, Asean and Indochina. A Study of Political Responses. 1975–1981. Canberra Studies in World Affairs No. 19. Department of International Relations, the Australian National University, 1985, pp. 116. $10.00.

Lim Chong‐Yah and Peter J. Lloyd (eds), Singapore: Resources and Growth. Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1986, pp 279 + xiv. $20.00.

R. J. May (ed.), Between Two Nations. The Indonesia — Papua New Guinea Border and West Papua Nationalism. Robert Brown and Associates, Bathurst, 1986, pp. 260. $13.95.

Shamsul A. B., From British to Bumiputera Rule — Local Politics and Rural Development in Peninsular Malaysia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1986, pp. xxi + 282. $US28.00 (cloth), $US18.00 (paper).

Bernard Swan, Peace and Conflict in a Poor Country: Sri Lanka, AIIA Occasional Paper No. 3, The Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 1986, pp.62 $3.50.

James Manor (ed.) Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis. Croom Helm, London & Sydney, 1984, pp.229 $16.95.

Orlando Fals Borda (ed.), The Challenge of Social Change. Sage Publications, London, 1985, pp.134. £15.95.

National Commission on Disappeared People, Nunca Mas/Never Again, English Translation by Writers and Scholars International Ltd. Faber and Faber, London, 1986, pp.xvi + 463. $24.95.

G. McCormack and Y. Sugimoto (eds.), Democracy in Contemporary Japan. Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1986, pp.272. $29.95 (cloth), $14.95 (paper).

Rokuro Hidaka, The Price of Affluence. Dilemma of Contemporary Japan. Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1985, pp.196. $7.95.

Hans H. Baerwald, Party Politics in Japan. Allen and Unwin, London, 1986, pp. xiv+204. $24.50.

Peter Calvert, The Foreign Policy of New States. Wheatsheaf Books, Brighton, 1986, pp. viii + 216. $27.95.

Mohammed Ayoob (ed.), Regional Security in the Third World: Case Studies from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1986, pp. 284. $49.95.

R.J. Vincent (ed.), Foreign Policy and Human Rights — Issues and Responses. Cambridge University Press, in association with The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Cambridge, 1986, pp.283. $84.00.

R.J. Vincent, Human Rights and International Relations. Cambridge University Press, in association with The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Cambridge 1986, pp 186. No price given.

Gerard Chaliand and Jean‐Pierre Rageau, Strategic Atlas: World Geopolitics. Penguin Books, Hammondsworth, 1986, pp. 224. $16.95.

John H. Makin, The Global Debt Crisis: America's Growing Involvement, Basic Books, New York, 1984, pp. 281. $34.95.

Bruce R. Scott and George C. Lodge (eds), U.S. Competitiveness in the World Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass, 1985, pp.x+543. $40.95.

Desmond Ball, A Base for Debate. The US Satellite Station at Nurrungar. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1987, pp. 122. $9.95.

E. M. Andrews, The Writing on the Wall: The British Commonwealth and Aggression in the East 1931–1935. Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1987, pp. KV+228. $29.95.

Lawrence T. Farley, Plebiscites and Sovereignty: The Crisis of Political Legitimacy. Westview Press, Boulder, and Maunsell Publishing, London, 1986, pp. xiv+179. £16.95.

Edwin E. Moise, Modern China: A History. Longmans, New York, 1986, pp.xvi+256. $22.95.

Mark Mancall, China at the Center: 300 Years of Foreign Policy. The Free Press, New York, 1984, pp. xvii+540. $59.95.

Penny Kane, The Second Billion: Population and Family Planning in China. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, 1987, pp. 264. $14.95.

Germain A. Hoston, Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987, pp. xviii+401. $US40.00 (cloth), $US15.00 (paper).

William S. Turley, The Second Indochina War: A Short Political and Military History, 1954–1975. Westview Press, Boulder, and Gower, London, 1986, pp. xvii, 238. $US35.00.     

Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the 17th-Century Anglo-Dutch East-Indiaman Avondster in Bay of Galle, Sri Lanka

The Avondster was a 17th century British ship captured by the Dutch and used by the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) trading with Asia until it was wrecked in Galle Harbour, Sri Lanka in 1659. The shipwreck was found in 1997 to be in very good condition but under threat from development in the harbour. From 2001–2004 an archaeological project was implemented by the Dutch/Sri Lankan Mutual Heritage Centre. The aims were to record and recover important cultural material as well as to build up the capacity of a Sri Lankan Maritime Archaeology Unit for implementing future work.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

Book reviews

P.G. Edwards, Prime Ministers and Diplomats: The Making of Australian Foreign Policy 1901–1949, Oxford University Press in association with The Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1983, pp. vii + 230. $24.99.

Ghanshyam Pardesi (ed.), Contemporary Peace Research. Harvester Press, Brighton, 1983, pp. xi + 374, £30.00

Cosmas Desmond, Persecution East and West. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1983, pp. 172. $5.95.

B.G. Ramcharan (ed.), International Law and Fact‐Finding in the Field of Human Rights. Martinus Nijhoff. The Hague, 1982, pp. x + 260. $US48.00.

M. Akehurst, A Modern Introduction to International Law. Fourth edn. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1982, pp. 304. $49.50 (cloth) $17.95 (paper).

T. Nardin, Law, Morality, and the Relations of States. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1983, pp. xii + 350. $45.00 (cloth) $19.00 (paper).

Allan McKnight and Keith Suter, The Forgotten Treaties. Law Council of Australia, Melbourne, 1983, pp. xi + 136. $5.95.

D.E. Rosenthal and W.M. Knighton, National Laws and International Commerce. Chatlam House Papers 17. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and Royal Institute of Internationa! Affairs, 1982, pp. xi + 96. $9.95.

R. Kay (ed.), The Surrender and Occupation of Japan (Documents on New Zealand External Relations, Vol II), Department of Internal Affairs, Historical Publications Branch, Wellington, 1982, pp. 1782. $75.

Mike Muller, The Health of Nations: A North‐South Investigation. Faber and Faber, London, 1982, pp.255. $10.95.

Phiphat Tangsubkul, ASEAN and the Law of the Sea. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1982, pp. xv + 148. $S24.00.

D.P. O'Connell (edited by I.A. Shearer), The International Law of the Sea, Vol. I. Oxford University Press, New York, 1982, pp. xxxiii + 634. $100.00.

R.A. Herr, R. Hall, and B.W. Davis (eds.), Issues in Australia's Marine and Antarctic Policies. Public Policy Monograph, Department of Political Science, University of Tasmania, 1982, pp. xii + 201. $7.95.

Jürgen Tampke. The People's Republics of Eastern Europe. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1983, pp. 178. $27.50.

Alexandre Bennigsen and Marie Broxup, The Islamic Threat to the Soviet State. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1983, pp. vii + 170. $22.50.

Aryeh Y. Yodfat, The Soviet Union and the Arabian Peninsula. Soviet Policy Towards the Persian Gulf and Arabia. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1983, pp. xiii + 191. $23.50.

Saburo Okita. Japan's Challenging Years: Reflections on my Lifetime. Australia‐Japan Research Centre. Australian National University, Canberra, 1983,pp.xii,+ 147.$p10.00(Australia) $12.00 (overseas).

Martin Stuart‐Fox (ed.), Contemporary Laos. University of Queensland Press. St. Lucia. 1982. pp. xxii + 345. $19.95.

Jim Dunn, Timor: A People Betrayed, Jacaranda Press, Milton, 1983, pp. xiii + 402. $15.95.

J. Southwood and P. Flanagan, Indonesia: Law, Propaganda and Terror, Zed Press, London, pp. 272. £12.95 (cloth) £5.95 (paper).

Stephen Feuchtwang and Athar Hussain (eds.), The Chinese Economic Reforms. Croom Helm, London, 1983, pp. 373. £15.95.

Yearbook of International Organisations 1983–84, 20th Edition, Volume 1 K.G. Saur, Munich, for the Union of International Associations, Brussels, 1983, pp. 910. DM 428.