The reissue and updating of this book, originally designed to make a case for the liberalization of the law then in force in India, was undertaken to review how the Act was implemented and to explore how such an act can affect poor women of the Third World countries.

India's story is important when viewed against the quasi-violent attitudes and activities of populations considerably more literate, "educated", and sophisticated than that of India, on the subject of what are popularly called the "abortion wars" of the United States and Europe.