Happy University Press Week! Help us celebrate university presses November 13-17. Since 2012, members of the Association of University Presses have participated in an annual celebration of University Presses. Following the example of the first University Press week, proclaimed by US President Jimmy Carter in the summer of 1978, this event recognizes the impact that a global community of university presses has on every one of us.

This year’s theme for UP Week is “Speak UP.” This is meant to provide an opportunity for presses and their supporters to shout to the rooftops about the value of the essential work of university presses: giving voice to the scholarship and ideas that shape conversations around the world.

The #UPweek blog tour today features “WHEN does your press #SpeakUP?” Posts on today’s topic, giving examples of when fellow university presses have spoken up on issues of local, national, and international significance, come from University of Notre Dame Press, Columbia University Press, University of North Carolina Press, University of Illinois Press, University of Toronto Press, University of Pennsylvania Press, University Press of Kentucky, Bristol University Press, John Hopkins University Press, Cornell University Press, and SUNY Press.

For our contribution, acquisition editor, Emily Casillas, will be discussing why Nora Jaffary’s forthcoming Fall 2024 title, Abortion in Mexico, is a timely piece of scholarship that speaks on issues of local, national, and international significance.

Abortion in the News

With the 2022 Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, political debates on abortion and women’s reproduction rights have only reiterated the need for continuing scholarship in reproductive studies. The University of Nebraska’s (UNP’s) forthcoming publication, Abortion in Mexico: A History, is a timely example of how we at UNP #SpeakUP in everything we publish.

As the acquiring editor for Latin American history, as well as women’s and gender studies, at UNP, I am always excited to find books that bridge the two fields and have implications for today’s world. In Abortion in Mexico, Latin American historian Nora E. Jaffary examines the social, legal, and judicial condemnation of abortion in Mexico from the early post-contact period through the present day. Nora Jaffary is a well-known name in the history of Latin America, and I knew this book would be something special for our list. This is a significant piece of scholarship because it challenges the conventional claim that Mexico’s Catholic Church has always supported the sanctity of human life and that conception marks the moment of the creation of such life. In fact, before the twentieth century, the regulation of abortion in Mexico derived exclusively out of concern for the sexual honor of the pregnant women themselves without the consideration of fetal life.

I really worked to acquire this title because I realized the unique significance it would have on today’s debate, especially in a transnational context. Not only does Jaffary apply multiple angles to inform readers of how far the debate on abortion has evolved in Mexico, she also begins a necessary conversation about current issues of local, national, and international significance, regardless of race or geographical location. Through this study, we can utilize history as a learning tool by comparing the outcomes of today’s issues to those of the past. I look forward to seeing Dr. Jaffary’s timely work in print and to the implications it will have on the field of Mexico and gender histories.

Since the federal government has given each individual state the power to either approve or ban the legal right of abortion, it’s more important than ever to understand the historical arguments for or against abortion, the development of those arguments, and their impact. By giving platform to scholarship that challenges and expands the cannon of abortion history, UNP “Speaks UP” about individual rights and reproductive justice for women not only in the Americas, but throughout the world.