Abortion in the Web of Relationship: Negotiating the Abortion Decision Through a Lens of Care

Abstract

Does the public abortion debate in the United States bear any relation to women’s private discourse about their abortion experiences? In this work—a qualitative study of the abortion narratives of 20 women—I argue that the familiar pro-choice and pro-life frameworks that have dominated public abortion discourse do not begin to provide a suitable forum for the collective expression and understanding of women’s personal abortion stories. By focusing on the conflicting rights of the parties involved, these frameworks leave us poorly equipped to understand how women experience abortion as members of social networks where interdependence and connection are important. While the debate emphasizes conflicting rights, women articulate their experiences with abortion in ways that emphasize relationship, care, and connection to others. By drawing on the work of theorists such as Dorothy Smith, Jean Baker Miller, Carol Gilligan, and Georg Simmel, I illuminate the misappropriation of women’s abortion experience in the public debate, relating this phenomenon to the social-structural context in which it and other exclusions of subordinate groups occur.