Arthur Shostak

Art Shostak, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Drexel University where for 37 years he taught and introduced courses in Introduction to Sociology, Futurism, Race and Ethnic Relations, Social Implications of 20th century Technology, and Urban Sociology. Previously, he was on the faculty of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania. He earned a B.S. degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University (1958) and a M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology from Princeton University(1961).

He is the principal author of Men and Abortion: Lessons, Losses, and Love (1984) (out of print), and many related articles. He has spoken at NAF Conferences, and appeared on many radio talk show discussions of men and abortion. In 2006, Art was designated Outstanding Applied Sociologist by the American Sociological Association, a lifetime achievement award. He is author, co-author or editor of over 150 articles and 31 books on a wide variety of topics that are outlined in his website.

Contact him as follows: [email protected]

Abortion and Manhood

Arthur Shostak

Three challenges are at the heart of the men and abortion matter. First, what does it mean to be a man? Second, what does it mean to be a sexually active man? And third, what does it mean to accompany your sex partner or any female who asks to an abortion clinic?

Bringing Men in from the Cold: Abortion Clinics and Male Services

Arthur Shostak

Art Shostak, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Drexel University.

Over 600,000 males annually find themselves in the waiting rooms of the nation's nearly 400 abortion clinics (about half of all abortion-seeking women are generally accompanied by a man, as the regulations require assistance on leaving after the procedure). I have been there, first in the late 1970s as a perspiring young single man accompanying my nervous lover, and ever since as an applied sociologist drawn to find out more about the guys I sat among for three hours (and thereby, more about myself).

After my own abortion involvement, I helped create the first-ever national survey of males in abortion clinic waiting rooms (an exploratory, rather than a random and scientific study) and co-authored the still only academic book on the subject - Men and Abortion: Lessons, Losses, and Love (1984). In the 22 years since its publication - thanks to indispensable help from Claire Keyes, director of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Clinic in Pittsburgh, and an outstanding friend of waiting room men - I have conducted three more survey waves and I now have answers and longitudinal data from over 3,000 males in scores of clinics coast-to-coast.