FOR women of childbearing age, rubella is now most recognisable as the “R” in the MMR vaccine. In Dangerous Pregnancies, Leslie Reagan highlights a time when we weren’t so lucky.
Focusing on the rubella epidemic that hit the US in the 1960s, during which tens of thousands of babies were miscarried or born with birth defects, Reagan tells intimate and heart-rending stories of affected women fighting anti-abortion laws and mothers being forced to place their disabled children into state care. Although the epidemic is now largely forgotten, Reagan shows how it played a key role in efforts to legalise abortion,…
