Abortion Discourse Research Articles

Abortion Law and Abortion Discourse in Taiwan: Rights, Social Movements and Democratization

My dissertation tells a story of the abortion right in Taiwan: how abortion was not a right either before or after its legalization, how it became a right after the mobilization of social movements and democratization, and finally, what sort of right it is today. Abortion was legalized in Taiwan in 1985, for the purposes of population control and social and economic development of the nation. The legalization debates of the 1980s (the Old Abortion Debate), did not include a rights discourse. Twenty years later, when new abortion bans were submitted to the Legislature for review, a fresh round of debate (The New Abortion Debate) began in which a rights discourse emerged. My dissertation compares the abortion discourses of the Old Abortion Debate with the New Abortion Debate. I examine in what way they are different and, in particular, whether the use of the language of rights increased. Based on an empirical analysis of legislative records, I conclude that the quantity of abortion rights discourse significantly increased in Taiwan in the period of the New Abortion Debate. I explore the factors that appear to have contributed most to the emergence of the rights discourse. I argue that structural change in the legislative forum and the ideological change in the concept of rights altered the political atmosphere, creating the possibility of adopting rights discourse in the New Abortion Debate. However, the framing of feminist proabortion movement affected the abortion rights discourse more directly. Feminists framed women's abortion right as a right to abortion autonomy rather than what North Americans refer to as a private choice or a freedom. Under the strong influence of feminists, abortion autonomy has become the dominant perspective in the abortion rights discourse in Taiwan.

Social scripts and stark realities: Kenyan adolescents' abortion discourse

This study explores students' narratives and discourses about adolescent pregnancy and abortion elicited via internet‐based open‐ended questions posed in response to a cartoon vignette. We report on content analysis of recommendations and strategies for how to manage the unplanned pregnancy of a fictional young couple and in their own personal lives. The responses of 614 young people were analysed. Strategies vary widely. They include giving birth, adoption, running away, abortion, denial, and postponement until discovery. Young people were also queried about unplanned pregnancy resolution among their peers. Discourse analysis reveals competing social scripts on abortion. Florid condemnation of abortion acts in the hypothetical cases contrasts with more frank and sober description of peers' real life abortion behaviour. Students' language is compared with that found in official curricula. The rhetorical devices, moralizing social scripts and dubious health claims about abortion in students' online narratives mirror the tenor and content of their academic curricula as well as Kenyan media presentation of the issue. The need for factual information, dispassionate dialogue and improved contraceptive access is considerable. Résumé Dans cette étude, les auteurs examinent les récits et les discours d'étudiants à propos de la grossesse et de l'avortement chez l'adolescent, les données ayant été recueillies au moyen de questions ouvertes basées sur un dessin animé posté sur un site Internet. L'article est consacré à l'analyse du contenu de leurs recommandations et stratégies à adopter pour faire face à une grossesse inattendue chez un jeune couple fictif et dans leur propre vie. Les réponses de 614 jeunes sont analysées. Les stratégies préconisées sont très variables. En voici quelques exemples : donner naissance à l'enfant, le faire adopter, s'en aller, avortement, déni, et remise du problème à plus tard, c'est‐à‐dire jusqu'au moment où l'entourage le découvre. Les jeunes étaient interrogés aussi à propos de la manière dont leurs pairs résoudraient un problème de grossesse non désirée. L'analyse de leurs discours montre que plusieurs scénarios sociaux à propos de l'avortement se font concurrence. La condamnation sans appel de l'avortement dans les cas fictifs contraste avec une description plus franche et plus sobre du comportement réel de leurs pairs confrontés à la question de l'avortement. Le vocabulaire employé par les étudiants est comparé à celui utilisé dans les programmes officiels. Dans les récits en ligne des étudiants, les tournures ampoulées, les scénarios sociaux moralisateurs et les affirmations douteuses concernant les risques éventuels pour la santé en cas d'avortement reflètent aussi bien la teneur et le contenu de leurs programmes scolaires que la présentation faite par les médias kenyans de la question. Il y a un besoin considérable d'informations factuelles, de dialogue objectif et d'accès plus facile aux méthodes contraceptives. Resumen En este estudio analizamos los relatos y discursos de estudiantes sobre los embarazos de adolescentes y el aborto. Se llevaron a cabo entrevistas a través de Internet con preguntas abiertas planteadas a través de cómics. Los datos que proporcionamos se basan en un análisis del contenido de las recomendaciones y estrategias que los estudiantes daban para una joven pareja ficticia y sus propias vidas personales sobre cómo abordar los embarazos no planificados. Analizamos las respuestas de 614 jóvenes cuyas estrategias fueron muy variadas. Algunas de las soluciones que daban eran por ejemplo dar a luz, adoptar, escaparse, abortar, negar el embarazo y no dar explicaciones hasta que se descubra el embarazo. También se preguntó a los jóvenes qué hacían sus compañeras si tenían un embarazo no planificado. En los análisis de los discursos se observaron guiones sociales competitivos sobre el aborto. Las condenas enfáticas sobre el aborto en los casos hipotéticos contrastan con la descripción franca y sensata de la conducta ante el aborto en casos conocidos de la vida real. Comparamos el lenguaje de los estudiantes con el que se observa en currículos oficiales. Los recursos retóricos, los guiones sociales moralizantes y las dudosas afirmaciones sobre las consecuencias del aborto para la salud que aparecen en los relatos de los estudiantes en Internet reflejan el sentido y el contenido de sus currículos académicos al igual que el modo en que los medios de comunicación de Kenia presentan este problema. Es muy necesario disponer de información factible, un diálogo sereno y un mejor acceso a anticonceptivos.

Women's Political Discourse: A 21st Century Perspective

Women's Political Discourse: A 21st Century Perspective. By Molly Mayhead and Brenda Devoe Marshall. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 2005. 304 pp. 26.00 paper.Political discourse has proven a worthy source of material for scholarly investigation into power, politics, and policymaking. Policy scholars have frequently used discourse to explore issue framing, media content, and policy decisions (e.g., Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones, Agendas and Instability in American Politics, 1993; Roger W. Cobb and Charles D. Elder, Participation in American Politics: The Dynamics of Agenda Building, 1983; Deborah Stone, Policy Paradox, 1997; Nayda Terkildsen, Frauke I. Schnell, and Cristina Ling, “Interest Groups, the Media, and Policy Debate Formation: An Analysis of Message Structure, Rhetoric, and Source Cues,” Political Communication 15 [1998]: 45–61). As a tool for investigating abortion debates (e.g., Myra Marx Ferree, William Anthony Gamson, Jurgen Gerhards, and Dieter Rucht, Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the U.S., 2002) or sex education (e.g., Janice M. Irvine, Talk about Sex: The Battles over Sex Education in the U.S., 2002), discourse also reveals the gendered dimensions of contemporary American politics. At the same time, this insight is not lost on advocates and opinion leaders: “Words are … bullets” in the culture wars, says James Dobson, founder of the conservative evangelical group Focus on the Family (quoted in Irvine 2002, 73).

Abortion, Religious Conflict, and Political Culture

Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States . By , , , and . Cambridge , UK : , 2002 . xx + 350 pp. $60.00 cloth, $23.99 paper . Pro‐Life Activists in America: Meaning, Motivation, and Direct Action . By . Cambridge , UK : , 2002 . x + 278 pp. $65.00 cloth, $23.99 paper . Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War . By . . Berkeley , CA : , 2004 . xvi + 327 pp. $16.95 paper . The Moral Veto: Framing Contraception, Abortion, and Cultural Pluralism in the United States . By . Cambridge , UK : , 2005 . xii + 340 pp. $65.00 cloth, $22.99 paper .

Abortion discourse in Bolivian hospital contexts: doctors’ repertoire conflicts and the Saving Women device

The author proposes going Beyond attitudes (Potter and Wetherell 1987) to a more nuanced assessment of doctors' discursive variations. Through an application of Gilbert and Mulkay's (1984) interpretative repertoires, she defined three voices--technical, normative and pragmatic--in which Bolivian doctors spoke of abortion. In State and social security hospital contexts, doctors hastened to express compliance with government policy and institutional norms regulating abortion and postabortion care. Technical and pragmatic considerations, however, often entered into conflict with established rules. When contradictions became apparent in their own discourse, doctors regularly drew on the Saving Women device. This accounting strategy enabled them to save face as up-to-date professionals through justifying temporary deviance from norms in terms of benefit to women treated. The author describes her development of the repertoires, their validation with different medical audiences, and doctors' critical appropriation of the model to explain their own discursive variations.

Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. By Myra Marx Ferree, William Anthony Gamson, Jürgen Gerhards, and Dieter Rucht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. vii+350. $60.00 (cloth); $23.00 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewShaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. By Myra Marx Ferree, William Anthony Gamson, Jürgen Gerhards, and Dieter Rucht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. vii+350. $60.00 (cloth); $23.00 (paper).Suzanne StaggenborgSuzanne StaggenborgMcGill University Search for more articles by this author McGill UniversityPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 110, Number 3November 2004 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/428317 Views: 101Total views on this site Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the author.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Purest Democrat: Fetal Citizenship and Subjectivity in the Construction of Democracy in Poland

The Purest Democrat: Fetal Citizenship and Subjectivity in the Construction of Democracy in Poland

Myra Marx Ferree/William Anthony Gamson/Jürgen Gerhards/Dieter Rucht: Shaping Abortion Discourse. Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States

Myra Marx Ferree/William Anthony Gamson/Jürgen Gerhards/Dieter Rucht: Shaping Abortion Discourse. Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States

Myra Marx Ferree, William Anthony Gamson, Jurgen Gerhards, and Dieter Rucht: Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 350 pp

Myra Marx Ferree, William Anthony Gamson, Jurgen Gerhards, and Dieter Rucht: Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 350 pp

Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States

Tables and figures Foreword Friedhelm Neidhardt Preface Glossary Part I. Introduction: 1. Two related stories 2. Historical context 3. Methods Part II. Major Outcomes: 4. The discursive opportunity structure 5. Standing 6. Framing Part III. Representing Different Constituencies: 7. Representing women's claims 8. Representing religious claims 9. Representing the tradition of the left Part IV. The Quality of Abortion Discourse: 10. Normative criteria for the public sphere 11. Measuring the quality of discourse 12. Metatalk 13. Lessons for democracy and the public sphere Methodological appendix References Index.

Shaping abortion discourses: democracy and the public sphere in Germany and the United States

Shaping abortion discourses: democracy and the public sphere in Germany and the United States

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

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.

Not Exactly “of Woman Born”: Procreation and Creation in Recent Science Fiction Films

The rhetoric of women as wombs or mere incubators has circulated in Western culture at least as far back as Aristotle (Zeitlin), and it has re-emerged powerfully in recent abortion discourse regarding “fetal and father's rights” (Bordo 72). As we might expect, this discourse has also entered into our narratives, particularly science fiction texts, which have been preoccupied with creation and procreation ever since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Recent American science fiction films are heavily invested in these concerns because they so spectacularly intersect with the genre's fundamental subject matter, that is, with science and technology, which represent another sort of creative power–one that these texts have traditionally linked to and placed in masculine rather than feminine hands. From I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) to Alien 4: Alien Resurrection (1997), who controls procreation and creation, how, and for what purposes have been central issues.

Hindsight and the abortion experience: what abortion means to women years later.

This paper explores how women construct meaning around their abortion experiences in retrospect. It does so by offering profiles of four women who participated in a larger study examining various facets of the abortion experience. The four individuals profiled demonstrate some of the diversity in women's retrospecitive accounts of their abortion experiences, and they are representative of a sample of twenty women in this way. Drawing on Dorothy Smith's (Smith, 1987) ideas concerning a sociology for women that “creates space for an absent subject,” this paper demonstrates that women's retrospective accounts of their abortion experiences can inform and transform our politicized abortion discourse. Rather than allow women's narratives to be used by debate factions, I argue for the need to recognize that these narratives can broaden our understanding of the abortion experience.

Cultural Differences in the Abortion Discourse of the Catholic Church: Evidence from Four Countries

This essay investigates the cultural themes used by the Catholic Church in arguing against abortion in four different countries: Ireland, Poland, the U.S., and England & Wales. The focus is whether the Church differentiates its use of cultural arguments in accordance with its insider/outsider institutional status, or the contested nature of the abortion policy-making environment. The prevalence of women-oriented themes is also explored. I find that in each country the Church draws more heavily on cultural than on doctrinal sources of legitimation, and exhibits a strong similarity in the sorts of cultural arguments used. There is a significant difference in the patterned appeal to national identity in the U.S. and Poland, and its absence in England and Ireland.

Religion and Culture in Tension: The Abortion Discourses of the U. S. Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention

Sociologists increasingly emphasize the systemic openness of religious organizations to their environment. Mark Kowalewski argues that the Catholic church, for example, engages in a “limited accommodation” with the broader culture in order to “rein in the forces of change and to keep modernizing elements under the control of the existing power elite.” Others suggest that the church manages its multiple identities across diverse audiences by articulating culturally adaptive discourses. Nancy Ammerman documents the responsiveness of religious organizations to political currents by demonstrating how doctrinal and ideological upheavals within the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980's resulted in a conservative resurgence within the organization and a new administration committed to taking an activist public stance on various sociomoral issues, including abortion.

Religion and Culture in Tension: The Abortion Discourses of the U.S. Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention

Sociologists increasingly emphasize the systemic openness of religious organizations to their environment. Mark Kowalewski argues that the Catholic church, for example, engages in a “limited accommodation” with the broader culture in order to “rein in the forces of change and to keep modernizing elements under the control of the existing power elite.” Others suggest that the church manages its multiple identities across diverse audiences by articulating culturally adaptive discourses. Nancy Ammerman documents the responsiveness of religious organizations to political currents by demonstrating how doctrinal and ideological upheavals within the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980's resulted in a conservative resurgence within the organization and a new administration committed to taking an activist public stance on various sociomoral issues, including abortion.

Working‐class women in a middle‐class world: The impact of television on modes of reasoning about abortion

This paper investigates how focus groups of working‐class and middle‐class women discuss abortion before and after viewing a television show that treats the issue. It describes differences between the discourse of the social classes about the issue, and differences or similarities in television's impact on abortion discourse in the two types of groups. Working‐class women use a more critical mode of speech than middle‐class women in discussing abortion, and the groups' speech becomes more similar following television viewing.

Explanations in abortion discourses

Explanations in abortion discourses