Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy

With measures to tackle the social issues caused by teen pregnancy being bantered about the halls of Congress like a beach volleyball, it's refreshing to receive some serious, measured thinking on the context and causes of teenage pregnancy. Kristin Luker, a professor of sociology and law at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, presents a book that tracks the history of our near-obsession with the subject. Her central point is that pregnancy is a measuring stick of poverty, not a cause. While there's statistical analysis aplenty, the work comes to life through the words of the young mothers she interviewed.