Abortion Discourse Research Articles

Abortion, Reproductive Justice, and Justice-Based Sexual Ethics in the Episcopal Church

This article offers a critical theo-ethical reflection on abortion from a reproductive justice (RJ) perspective. Focusing on the socio-political structure that shapes abortion discourses and legislation and affects women’s agency over their reproductive ability, I complicate the ways of thinking about abortion. The abortion debate reveals what we, as the church, value, how we embody God’s love and justice, and how we should live. In search of the answers to these questions, the article engages in women of color’s theory and activism for RJ through the theological, the political, and the sexual. Finally, the article suggests that the Episcopal/Anglican church reconsider abortion as a social justice issue and meditate on its commitment to God’s justice in light of RJ.

“Activism is not a one-lane highway”: the digital modalities of Alliance for Choice and abortion decriminalisation

ABSTRACT In 2019, abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland (NI) after decades of campaigning against the almost-total ban. Abortion activists in NI used multiple tools for change, utilising a feminist law-making strategy that also encompassed ‘cheeky’ witnessing [Fletcher, R. (2020). Cheeky witnessing. Feminist Review, 124(1), 124–141. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141778919896342] and movement-building alongside mutual-aid approaches to care. This paper outlines the significant contribution of alternative creative modes of dialogue from the insider perspective of core Alliance for Choice activists. The key element of the campaign towards decriminalisation in NI, was inspired and influenced by the global networks of abortion campaigns also utilising digital networks to challenge problematic abortion discourse with an abundance of creative content. It also required daily visual online output that complimented and coalesced the wider campaign, in a digital space that [Butler, J. (2018). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly. Harvard University Press] contends is a version of the public street. This paper offers a unique insight into the creative production and careful navigation required for campaigning towards decriminalisation in the NI. It examines the complexity of the digital space and its challenges and opportunities for abortion activists. It offers lessons for other campaigns against abortion restrictions and other social justice movements.

Outside and Inside the Arena of Othering: Notions of ‘Intensive Mothering’ Revealed through Post-Abortion Narratives

This article explores the reproduction of the practice of ‘intensive mothering’ as theorised by Sharon Hays via the theoretical lens of Othering. Examining 20 post-abortion narratives that were shared by women living in Perth (Western Australia), I interrogate the Othering practice that distinguishes those who practise intensive mothering and those who cannot or do not, creating a line of division between the ‘good mother’ and the ‘bad mother’. While Othering tends to be examined uni-directionally, along clear boundary lines such as ethnicity and gender, I utilise the concept of the ‘arena of Othering’. I argue that the process of Othering excludes some people from participating in abortion discourse while bolstering the image of the responsible Self. By studying abortion narratives, this article contributes to both sets of literature: motherhood and Othering, making possible an interrogation of ‘intensive mothering’ and offering the alternative ‘good enough mothering’ to resist Othering.

Deliberative Qualities of Online Abortion Discourse: Incivility and Intolerance in the American and Irish Abortion Discussions on Twitter

This paper provides a big-data-scale assessment of the deliberative qualities of online abortion discussions on Twitter in the United States (2020) and Ireland (2018) by specifically focusing on two standards: civility and tolerance for constructive disagreements. Using diverse computational methods and classification, our regression analysis provides mixed evaluations. We find that incivility and intolerance are uncommon behaviours in American and Irish abortion discourse on Twitter, but we also find that these anti-deliberative behaviours are (a) generating more engagements and thereby distorting the overall discussion atmosphere; (b) largely coming from the pro-life tweets; (c) dominated by a small set of hyperactive participants; and that (d) intolerant users tend to communicate within homogeneous echo chambers. Our results indicate that it is crucial for online deliberation to curtail the capabilities of these superparticipants distorting and radicalising the overall online political discourse. By studying two national contexts, our results provide comparability of our findings and insights that can improve our understanding of other contentious and polarised issues more broadly.

Substance and Style in the Prolife Discourse

This essay is directed to the prolife community and argues that the abortion discourse on Catholic campuses will be improved significantly if the prolife community more intentionally integrates specific substantive and stylistic changes regarding the ethics and politics of abortion. Substantively, the impasse in the discourse may be initially bridged by what many prolife and prochoice persons should generally agree on—that abortion is driven by vicious social structures and a broken moral culture. Abortion is primarily a socially-generated moral problem that requires a socially-generated moral solution. The prolife and prochoice communities can agree and potentially collaborate on solutions to this social crisis. In light of the social factors that drive abortion, the prolife community should take seriously the experiences of women who have abortions and express more compassion for them. This community all too often quickly dismisses the suffering of women and, instead, trains its attention nearly exclusively on the unborn child. Both the mother and unborn child are victims of injustice and are deserving of compassion and mercy. Stylistically, the mode of the prolife discourse should reflect its message. A message of charity for all persons should be communicated charitably. Dialoguing with love is opposed to the ‘culture warrior’ ethos that currently plagues our nation.

Holding the Tensions: Female Bodily Integrity as an Intrinsic Good

To engage in more constructive abortion discourse, Catholics must get better at recognizing and sitting with moral tensions. We learn early on, for example, that abortion is intrinsically evil because it violates the right to life of a fetus. And yet—violations of bodily integrity are also considered intrinsic evils in our faith tradition. So why do Catholics often struggle to take seriously arguments that prioritize the bodily integrity of women who are pregnant? The Church should affirm the intrinsic dignity of female bodies—even during pregnancy, and even as we recognize that the bodies of women offer particularly compelling insights into our fundamental relationality. The black and white, dualistic, approach to abortion legislation that characterizes much Catholic discourse must be left behind, not to diminish our commitment to the dignity of the unborn, but to recognize the equal import of women. Only through affirming the bodily integrity of women can we begin to hold these tensions and participate in well-rounded, empathetic discourse.

Catholic Abortion Discourse and the Erosion of Democracy

Since World War II, US Catholic anti-abortion discourse has been framed in term of rights-language, ascribing civil and human rights to the prenate from the moment of conception. Yet many of those who would criminalize abortion have allied with anti-democratic political movements that buttress White supremacy and threaten civil rights. This contradiction exposes the theoretical inadequacy and epistemological hubris of current Catholic abortion discourse. While the Catholic Church and individual Catholics may subscribe to absolute moral norms against abortion, they should not leverage rights-language to legislate such norms in a pluralistic democracy. Instead, Catholics should draw on our rich tradition of virtuous practical reasoning for an abortion ethic that honors the moral agency of pregnant persons and democratic citizens.

“Rights Talk,” Abortion, and the Media: Tracking the Evolution of Abortion Discourse in Saskatchewan Newspapers

This article provides empirical data on the public discourse surrounding abortion in Saskatchewan. Through an analysis of newspaper articles from two time periods—the dawn of the Charter era and three decades after Morgentaler—this article considers how abortion is framed in these accounts and whether, when “rights” terminology is employed, rights are presented as absolute or limited. This article adds to the empirical body of work documenting the presence of “rights talk” in Canada and the literature on the media’s framing of abortion.

ABORTUS PROVOCATUS (DUE TO RABE) IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF AL-ḌARAR YUZÂLU

This article discusses the discourse on abortion in pregnancy of victims of rape in the perspective of al-ḍarar yuzâlu. Act No 36 of 2009 about health and Government Regulation Number 61 by 2014 about reproductive health, allows abortion due to rape. However, in its implementation there are still many obstacles, because of the abortion discourse which is still pro and contra, especially in terms of religion and cultural morals. This paper is a library research with qualitative data. Normatively, the discussion on abortion still raises various polemics and negative stigmas among the community as well as legal explanations. Therefore, this study is analyzed using the fiqh rule approach used in legal istinbaṭ by describing the reality of abortion and the impact of pregnancy due to rape for women. The purpose of this study is to become a discussion discourse to encourage good policies and regulations for women who become pregnans as a resultof rape. By using the rules of fiqh al-ḍarar yuzâlu, it is hoped that the harm is sought to be removed by terminating the pregnancy, as part of the protection of women, hifdz an-nafs, which is part of the maqâṣid al-syarȋ’ah.

A comparative investigation of metadiscursive clarifying devices in the abortion discourse of the U.S. Supreme Court

Based on previous research that identified metadiscursive clarifiers as a means of discursive control and subversion, this study investigates the use of the devices in the abortion discourse of the U.S. Supreme court. It examines four sub-genres of judicial opinion (majority opinions, dissents, regular concurrences, and special concurrences) and their contribution to the development of this area of law. The quantitative analysis reveals that the separate opinions contained significantly more clarifying devices than the majority opinions. This represented a missed opportunity for majority writers to control positions asserted in separate opinions. More qualitatively oriented analysis shows the use of the devices as reflecting the nature of the sub-genres examined: regular concurrence writers used clarifiers to support the majority opinion; special concurrence and dissent writers both used clarifiers to attack the majority opinion. The analysis also reveals that clarifiers often reveal prescient tensions within the law; positions expressed with the use of the devices often became majority positions in subsequent cases.

‘All this way, all this money, for a five-minute procedure’: barriers, mobilities, and representation on the US abortion road trip

The abortion road trip is a narrative device that has emerged in the last decade whereby the central plot of the story is the journey taken in search of an abortion. In this paper we analyze two young adult novels (Girls on the Verge and Unpregnant) and two films (Grandma and Never Rarely Sometimes Always) that follow adolescent girls traveling for abortions in the contemporary United States. Through the analysis of these four narratives, we argue that representations of the abortion road trip are novel for their focus on the barriers and politics of abortion access in the United States. While the representations do prioritize certain barriers over others, they mark an important shift in abortion discourse in popular culture. Instead of the ‘drama’ of the plot being the decision to have an abortion, it is increasingly other socio-politico-legal issues such as the lack of abortion clinics, the distance required to travel, legal rights for adolescents, the cost of the procedure, and the opinions of family and friends that take center stage. The focus on these structural, political barriers can help to educate audiences about the realities of abortion access in the US and move abortion discourse beyond the individual.

The Space in the Middle: Attitudes of Women's Health and Neonatal Nurses in the United States about Abortion.

Despite playing an integral part in sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion care, nurses are rarely the focus of research regarding their attitudes about abortion. A sample of 1,820 nurse members of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses were surveyed about their demographic and professional backgrounds, religious beliefs, and abortion attitudes. Scores on the Abortion Attitudes Scale were analyzed categorically and trichotomized in multinomial regression analyses. Almost one-third of the sample (32%) had moderately proabortion attitudes, 29% were unsure, 16% had strongly proabortion attitudes, 13% had strongly antiabortion attitudes, and 11% had moderately antiabortion attitudes. Using trichotomized Abortion Attitudes Scale scores (proabortion, unsure, antiabortion), adjusted regression models showed that the following characteristics were associated with proabortion attitudes: being non-Christian, residence in the North or West, having no children, and having had an abortion. Understanding nurses' attitudes toward abortion, and what characteristics may influence their attitudes, is critical to sustaining nursing care for patients considering and seeking abortion. Additionally, because personal characteristics were associated with antiabortion attitudes, it is likely that personal experiences may influence attitudes toward abortion. A large percentage of nurses held attitudes that placed them in the "unsure" category. Given the current ubiquitous polarization of abortion discourse, this finding indicates that the binary narrative of this topic is less pervasive than expected, which lends itself to an emphasis on empathetic and compassionate nursing care.

Female Physicians in American Literature: Abortion in 19th-Century Literature and Culture

Female Physicians in American Literature: Abortion in 19th-Century Literature and Culture

Abortion Laws in Muslim Countries: Modern Reconfiguration of Pre-modern Logic

Abstract In most countries where Islam is acknowledged as a, or the, source of legislation, abortion is permitted under certain conditions and at certain stages of pregnancy. This article examines some of these laws and argue that they represent a continuation of the logic that governed the views of pre-modern Muslim jurists on abortion, that is, harm aversion. However, these laws also add a ‘modernist’ twist to that logic – rather than repealing that logic altogether, modernist views on ‘rights’ and the advancement of medical knowledge and technology have influenced the priorities of Muslim jurists and lawmakers as far as abortion and the issues associated with it are concerned. This influence has furthermore been possible by a conscious selection and blending of pre-modern views to serve modern concerns. In all this, however, harm aversion remains the centrifugal principle, even when the abortion discourse in Muslim countries appears couched in the modernist discourse of rights.

Well-prefaced constructed dialogue as a marker of stance in online abortion discourse

Abstract This paper offers an analysis of well-prefaced constructed dialogue as a stance-taking resource in written discourse on abortion. Drawing from four corpora collected from editorials, blogs, Twitter, and Reddit, I demonstrate that writers use the discourse marker well to indicate a stance of disalignment and convey negative attitudinal information when there is tension between the writer’s beliefs and those expressed in the constructed dialogue; the discourse marker allows the writer to position and align themself to construct a specific identity that reinforces a positive-self, negative-other evaluation.

Abortion Depression of Women as Queer Subject, and Mourning Church - Analysing the Abortion Discourse in Korean Society from a Butlerian Perspective -

본 논문은 한국 사회의 낙태 담론을 분석하여 ‘돌봄의 윤리’가 필요한 여성의 자리를 발견하고, 낙태한 여성들에 대한 사목적인 차원에서 ‘신학적 윤리’의 전망을 점검한다. 많은 경우 낙태를 여성의 ‘자기결정권’ 혹은 ‘권리’의 문제로 접근하지만, 일각의 여성주의 담론은 낙태한 여성에 대한 심리학적이고 현상학적인 연구를 시도한다. 즉, 상처입고 공적으로 애도하지 못해서 모호한 주체로 살아가는 이들에 대한 ‘내적 변화에 대한 연구’를 시도한 것이다. 본 논문은 상반된 두 가지 여성주의 담론을 비교하고 낙태와 관련된 교회의 입장을 정리함으로써, 낙태 담론의 계보학적 변화의 순간을 확인한다. 교회는 부부들에게 생명에 대한 봉사를 완수하라고 권유하고, 한국 사회의 낙태 담론은 낙태를 체험한 여성에 대한 현상학적 돌봄의 주제를 다루기 시작했다. 이러한 분석을 위해 소포클레스의 비극에 등장하는 안티고네를 퀴어 주체로 해석한 버틀러의 저서 『안티고네의 주장』을 이용한다. 버틀러가 제시한 ‘젠더 정체성 이론’(패러디, 수행성, 우울증)을 급진적 여성주의자들의 담론 분석을 위한 해체 도구로 사용한다. 사랑하는 대상을 잃고도 공적으로 애도하지 못하는 안티고네의 내적 상태를 패러디하여, 공적으로 애도하지 못하는 낙태한 여성들의 상황을 분석한다.

“They Just Went After Us:” Reproductive Justice Advocacy at an Abortion Fund

In this study, I explore how organizers at an abortion fund use new media to create communication outreach about abortion and their hotline service. The data for this study includes one year of digital ethnographic work as a hotline volunteer at the abortion fund, along with in-depth interviews with the fund’s advocacy team. The fund organizers want to appeal to supporters, protect and empower communities, confront systemic oppression, and dispel medically incorrect, neoliberal (i.e. racist, sexist, and classist) anti-abortion myths. Due to societal stigma and silence, public abortion discourse is largely shaped by media (mis)representation. To combat misinformation and misogyny, reproductive justice (RJ) organizers disrupt mainstream abortion narratives with their own outreach. The organizers in this study use social media to interact with the public, supporters, donors, and anti-abortion activists alike. While these organizers publish anonymous data and stories from their hotline on social media, they also vigorously protect the privacy of their callers and hotline volunteers. The organizers recognize the importance of callers seeing their experiences represented in public discourse while also feeling protected from anti-abortion backlash. Therefore, I argue the abortion fund organizers carrying out this digital advocacy work are engaging in multifaceted emotional labor and putting their bodies on the line for a stigmatized issue. This study is informed by research that speaks to the promises and perils of new media for community building, movement organizing, and what Molina-Guzman (2010) calls “symbolic rupture.” Social movement organizers work within the shifting media environment to transform cultural narratives, build solidarity, sustain their organizations, fundraise, and stand on the front line of stigmatized issues—even while enduring the consequences of personal exposure.

Abortion at the edges: Politics, practices, performances

This article provides a brief overview of the state of discourse, politics and provision of abortion in the Anglophone West, including developments in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It then surveys three promising directions for feminist abortion scholarship. The first is work inspired by the Reproductive Justice Movement, that points to the intersectional axes of inequality that shape abortion discourse and position us in relation to reproductive choice and access issues. The second is work that examines the particularity of the constitution of the aborting body, reflecting the particularity of the pregnant body. This is a specific body, with a specific history; abortion discourse draws from and makes a significant contribution to the meaning and lived experience of this body. The third area of scholarship we highlight is that which seeks to amplify the meaning of abortion as a social good. Much abortion scholarship is attuned to a critique of negative aspects of abortion—from its representation in popular culture to restrictive law and access issues. This is critical work but/and the performative nature of abortion scholarship, like all discourse, means that it can amplify the association of negativity with abortion. The article concludes by introducing the articles contained in the special section of Women's Studies International Forum, ‘Abortion at the edges: Politics, practices, performances’.

Contradictions in womxn's experiences of pre-abortion counselling in South Africa: Implications for client-centred practice.

Pre-abortion counselling may play a key role in abortion seekers' understanding of their decision to terminate a pregnancy and the subsequent emotions that they feel. In this paper, we report on a study conducted in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa concerning womxn's experiences of the pre-abortion counselling offered as part of the implementation of the Choice of Termination Act that governs the provision of legal abortion in the country. Using a narrative-discursive lens, the analysis revealed four micro-narratives in which participants appreciated non-directive and empathic counselling, as well as being provided with information. They also indicated that the counselling was upsetting and hurtful, particularly when providers drew on the awfulisation of abortion discourse to suggest that abortion leads to terrible consequences, and foetal personhood discourse to intimate that terminating the pregnancy is wrong and other alternatives (adoption, parenting) are better. The connection between these broadly positive and negative responses may lie in the dominance of anti-abortion discourses coupled with the powerful positioning of healthcare providers as experts. The attendant disempowerment of clients within the health clinic setting may constrain pregnant people's ability to question such 'expert' information. The implications for feminist client-centred pre-abortion counselling are discussed.

Health, life and rights: a discourse analysis of a hybrid abortion regime in Tanzania

BackgroundUnsafe abortion continues to be a major hazard for maternal health in Sub-Saharan Africa, where abortion remains highly controversial and access to safe abortion services is unequally distributed. Although national abortion laws are central in indicating women’s potential for accessing safe abortion services, the character of an abortion law may alone say little about national discursive abortion landscapes and access scenarios. The article calls for the study and problematization of the relationship between legal abortion frameworks on the one hand, and discourses surrounding abortion on the other, in an attempt to move closer to an understanding of the complexity of factors that influence knowledge about and access to safer abortion services. With the restrictive abortion law in Tanzania as a starting point, the paper explores the ways in which the major global abortion discourses manifest themselves in the country and indicate potential implications of a hybrid abortion regime.MethodsThe study combined a review of major legal and policy documents on abortion, a review of publications on abortion in Tanzanian newspapers between 2000 and 2015 (300 articles), and 23 semi-structured qualitative interviews with representatives from central institutions and organizations engaged in policy- or practical work related to reproductive health.ResultsTanzania’s abortion law is highly restrictive, but the discursive abortion landscape is diverse and is made manifest through legal- and policy documents and legal- and policy related disputes. The discourses were characterized by diverse frames of reference based in religion, public health and in human rights-based values, and as such reflect the major global discourses. Fairclough’s concepts interdiscursivity and recontextualization were drawn upon to develop an understanding of how the concepts health, rights and life emerge across the discourses, but are employed in contrasting lines of argumentation in struggles for hegemony and legitimacy.Discussion and conclusionsThe paper demonstrates that a hybrid discursive regime relating to abortion characterizes the legally restrictive abortion context of Tanzania. We argue that such a complex discursive landscape, which cuts across the restrictive - liberal divide, generates an environment that seems to open avenues for enhanced access to abortion related knowledge and services.