Winner: Adele E. Clarke Book Award, 2017

“Repronetwork is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2017 Adele E. Clarke Book Award is The Politics of Morality: The Church, The State, and Reproductive Rights in Postsocialist Poland, by Joanna Mishtal.  The Politics of Morality is a compelling investigation of reproductive life in Poland after the fall of socialism and the rise of Solidarity.  Weaving together ethnographic insights gleaned from her encounters with Polish families, Catholic clergy, physicians, and reproductive rights activists, Mishtal illuminates a contradictory landscape of conservative Catholic politics, widespread, privatized medical provision of illegal abortions, a falling birth rate, and public near-silence about reproductive rights.  The Politics of Morality contains insights that reverberate far beyond Poland, with its examination of the role and influence of the Catholic church, the rise of conservative moral politics, the shifting legal and practical roles of the medical profession in reproductive care, the impact of neoliberal economic policies on childbearing, and challenges to reproductive activism.”   —  Lara Freidenfelds, Ph.D., Adele E. Clarke Book Award Committee Chair