In her comprehensive treatment of this complex subject, Karen O'Connor builds on the history of abortion as a political issue - how it was first defined in the early 1800s and how it got on the political agenda - and takes us through the tug-of-war development of abortion politics to the present, using the policy process framework. Examining key court cases, institutions, dramatic events, and opinions from the public to the Supreme Court, O'Connor highlights the dilemma of how a polity attempts to make decisions about issues on which agreement or compromise is unlikely. She questions whether such divisive issues can ever be satisfactorily resolved but gives us the tools to explore every avenue toward potential resolution.