This chapter will likely be edited in the future. There are many discussion points that have been omitted simply because this is such a controversial topic and if I addressed every idea, this chapter could have quickly become a whole book in itself.
This chapter was also adapted from a piece I wrote in university.
What is Reproductive Justice?
Defined early in the nineteenth century as the complete physical, spiritual, political, social, and economic well-being of women and girls, the reproductive justice movement is centred on three key ideals: the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to parent the children we have.
This idea was initially brought forth in the 19th century with the concept of 'voluntary motherhood' in which women argued the right to refuse to satisfy their husband's sexual urges. However, this was largely ridiculed and the reproductive justice movement was forgotten until almost a century later in the 1970s.
Abortion is the most prominent issue discussed when talking about reproductive justice and one of the most controversial topics in the media. The topic is highly stigmatised and often debated.
And like most controversial feminist topics, there is a cycle that perpetrates and reinforces the stigma within society.
The Cycle of Abortion Stigma:
First, abortion is widely misunderstood and underreported. Because of this, people believe that abortion is uncommon and non-normative. Next, the misconception that abortion is somehow deviant or negative is perpetrated.
This leads to further discrimination and stigmatisation of women who actively seek abortions. Women fear the social repercussions of having an abortion, and the cycle begins again with less women speaking freely about their abortion behaviour.
Many who directly oppose abortion argue that the foetus is a living human that deserves the same rights as any birthed person. Those who actively oppose this notion recognise the notion that attributing a cluster of cells with innocence, purity, and vulnerability does nothing but encourage the stigma.
By embedding these ideas in popular discourse, it becomes easier to portray women who have and abortion or are considering an abortion as violent, unjustified, and even cruel.
Despite the fact that it is well-documented a foetus is not an autonomous being until it can survive outside of a woman's womb; at twenty-four weeks gestation [Tyson at al. 2008].
[Tyson, J, Parikh, N, Langer, J, Green, C & Higgins, R 2008, 'Intensive Care for Extreme Prematurity – Moving beyond Gestational Age', The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 63, no. 9, pp. 555-556.]
This argument directly demonises women and is used purely as a tactic for space and control over women's bodies.
This concept directly links with the theory of foetocentrism.
Foetocentrism is a theory defined as the process of metaphorically separating the foetus from the woman in depictions (usually images) in order to portray the foetus as an autonomous being.
This is often used as a tactic by anti-abortion groups to symbolically represent the foetus as a living child or baby and is very common in the mainstream media. Depictions rarely ever highlight the woman or the pregnancy as a whole.
An image of a foetus can never be taken without a woman and yet, the woman is never shown in these images.
This tactic again, is used to highlight the foetus as an autonomous, innocent being, vilifying the women who chooses to terminate a pregnancy.
YOU ARE READING
How-To: Feminism
Non-FictionThis book is a series of chapters of what I believe it means to be an intersectional feminist. In it, I explore content ranging from the false dichotomy, to rape culture and toxic masculinity. It is important to note that this book will not be for e...
