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Preface and Acknowl­edgments When we made the decision to coauthor this book, we realized that we ­ were taking a huge chance as we had never met one another face-­to-­face. Through a series of conversations and email communications regarding a shared research interest, we realized that we ­were both investigating the phenomena of abortion regret from dif­fer­ent perspectives, drawing upon our backgrounds in law, policy, gender studies, and po­liti­cal science. Since committing to this undertaking, we have worked seamlessly together as fully coequal authors bringing our shared knowledge, perspectives, and deep feminist commitments to our investigation of how the abortion regret fram- ing has not only been deployed to limit access to abortion but has also been used to reinscribe conventional gender norms culturally and institutionally. Although a growing number of scholars are writing about the emergence of the abortion regret narrative onto the antiabortion stage, we believed that the time had come for an interdisciplinary book on the subject given its growing prominence in the antiabortion movement. As we pooled the research we had each already done, we came to understand the full spectra of abortion regret, which, as this book demonstrates, encompasses far more than the latest rhetorical turn used to flame the conflict over abortion. Our research led us to conceptualize abortion regret as a unifying strategy for the antiabortion movement, which it has adeptly wielded to help usher in restrictive legislation while raising the level of stigma that continues to sur- round ­women’s reproductive decision making, most acutely around preg- nancy termination. Throughout this book, we trace the development of the abortion regret narrative from its 19th-­century roots through its strategic deployment in the po­liti­cal and ­ legal arenas. In tandem, we deconstruct the narrow construction of gender and abortion experiences that are embedded within this expansive narrative, and challenge the positioning of it as an