Overview

How embryo adoption advances the Christian Right’s political goals for creating a Christian nation In 1997, a group of white pro-life evangelical Christians in the United States created the nation’s first embryo adoption program to “save” the thousands of frozen human embryos remaining from assisted reproduction procedures, which they contend are unborn children. While a small part of US fertility services, embryo adoption has played an outsized role in conservative politics, from high-profile battles over public investment in human embryonic stem cell research to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Based on six years of ethnographic research with embryo adoption staff and participants, Risa Cromer uncovers how embryo adoption advances ambitious political goals for expanding the influence of conservative Christian values and power. Conceiving Christian America is the first book on embryo adoption tracing how this powerful social movement draws on white saviorist tropes in their aims to reconceive personhood, with drastic consequences for reproductive rights and justice. Documenting the practices, narratives, and beliefs that move embryos from freezers to uteruses, this book wields anthropological wariness as a tool for confronting the multiple tactics of the Christian Right. Timely and provocative, Conceiving Christian America presents a bold and nuanced examination of a family-making process focused on conceiving a Christian nation.

Full Product Details

9781479818594

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""A stunning portrait of how the reproductive politics of ‘saving’ embryos is closely tied to contemporary right-wing politics of ‘saving’ lives through abortion bans. A must-read."" -- Marcia Inhorn, author of Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs ""Beautifully written and thoroughly researched. Conceiving Christian America is a brilliant tribute to the tradition of feminist cultural analysis out of which it emerges. This book will surely become an instant classic."" -- Sarah Franklin, Director, Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge ""Remarkable and timely. . . . Cromer brings nuance and sophistication to understanding what lies behind the polarizing politics of the culture wars around reproduction in America."" -- Faye Ginsburg, co-editor, Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction ""Brimming with riveting stories . . . Cromer presents a compelling look inside a growing social movement that aims to transform how we think about embryos, reproduction, and the nation. Conceiving Christian America offers invaluable insight for clinicians and policymakers, andmakes a powerful contribution to feminist social science on the reproductive politics of American conservatism."" -- Lynn Morgan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College"

"""A stunning portrait of how the reproductive politics of ‘saving’ embryos is closely tied to contemporary right-wing politics of ‘saving’ lives through abortion bans. A must-read."" -- Marcia Inhorn, author of Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs ""Beautifully written and thoroughly researched. Conceiving Christian America is a brilliant tribute to the tradition of feminist cultural analysis out of which it emerges. This book will surely become an instant classic."" -- Sarah Franklin, Director, Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge ""Remarkable and timely. . . . Cromer brings nuance and sophistication to understanding what lies behind the polarizing politics of the culture wars around reproduction in America."" -- Faye Ginsburg, co-editor, Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction ""Brimming with riveting stories . . . Cromer presents a compelling look inside a growing social movement that aims to transform how we think about embryos, reproduction, and the nation. Conceiving Christian America offers invaluable insight for clinicians and policymakers, andmakes a powerful contribution to feminist social science on the reproductive politics of American conservatism."" -- Lynn Morgan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College ""Cromer emphasizes her encounters with many individuals who support embryo adoption yet reject these associations–and in fact draw on their faith tradition to oppose these distorted values. Her final reflections, however, invite us to a more sobering conclusion: the entrenched patterns of white innocence and white saviorism operating in embryo adoption fuel the larger project of the far right, which has greater ambitions and threatens devastating consequences."" * Center for Genetics and Society *"

A stunning portrait of how the reproductive politics of ‘saving’ embryos is closely tied to contemporary right-wing politics of ‘saving’ lives through abortion bans. A must-read. -- Marcia Inhorn, author of Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs Beautifully written and thoroughly researched. Conceiving Christian America is a brilliant tribute to the tradition of feminist cultural analysis out of which it emerges. This book will surely become an instant classic. -- Sarah Franklin, Director, Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge Remarkable and timely. . . . Cromer brings nuance and sophistication to understanding what lies behind the polarizing politics of the culture wars around reproduction in America. -- Faye Ginsburg, co-editor, Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction Brimming with riveting stories . . . Cromer presents a compelling look inside a growing social movement that aims to transform how we think about embryos, reproduction, and the nation. Conceiving Christian America offers invaluable insight for clinicians and policymakers, andmakes a powerful contribution to feminist social science on the reproductive politics of American conservatism. -- Lynn Morgan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College

Author Information

Risa Cromer is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available