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United States of America
Combines UN reactions with pro-choice local initiatives by social movements and politicians demonstrating against recent bans on abortion in the U.S.
Although abortion became legal in the USA over 40 years ago, the population remains bitterly divided over its acceptability. Personal religious beliefs and life style have emerged as pivotal in shaping disapproval. However, very little attention has been given to how the local religious context may shape views and abortion access. Using data from the General Social Survey (6922) that has geographical identifiers, the authors examine how the local religious context influences social attitudes. They also examine the different impact of a higher rate of Catholicism or of Conservative Protestantism within the country, both on the attitudes of other residents and on acceptance of abortion clinics.
Highlights the content and possible consequences of Trump’s decision to bar organisations that provide abortion referrals from receiving federal family planning funds.
See also on the same issue:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/26/trump-administration-title-x-abortion-funding
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/22/planned-parenthood-funding-trump-1164038
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17367964/trump-abortion-planned-parenthood-defund
https://theintercept.com/2018/05/24/domestic-gag-rule-title-x-abortion-birth-control/
For a further explanation on the ‘global gag rule’ that aims to ban family planning clinics that get aid money from the United States and refer patients for abortions see
https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/blog/what-is-the-domestic-gag-rule
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17367964/trump-abortion-planned-parenthood-defund
This book collects stories related to experience of abortion in the US with the aim of de-stigmatising it. ‘Shout Your Abortion’ is also a media platform and a social movement that promotose pro-choice activism, which can be found at:
https://shoutyourabortion.com/
To read about the creator of #ShoutYourAbortion see https://www.reuters.com/article/us-abortion-usa-stigma/u-s-women-get-creative-in-fighting-abortion-stigma-idUSKCN0YH17E
To look at other pro-choice advocacy campaigns and their media platforms, see https://wetestify.org/ and http://www.1in3campaign.org/about
As there is an anti-abortion majority on the Supreme Court, and several states only have one abortion clinic, many reproductive rights activists are on the defensive, hoping to hold on to abortion in a few places and cases. This book explains abortion access in the United States, and makes the argument for building a militant feminist movement to promote reproductive freedom.
Also watch the launching of the book and related conference at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhZfC0tGBpc
This project explores the discourse on abortion in the United States, examining the abortion clinic as a ‘space of interaction’ between the pro-choice and pro-life social movements. The author completed four months of participant observation in the fall of 2017 as a clinic escort at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Poughkeepsie, New York. She witnessed firsthand (and participated in) the interactions between the clinic escorts and the anti-abortion protestors who picketed the clinic each week. The study shows that, while the two sides of the debate adopt opposing ideologies, their ‘structure in this space’ does not actually look all that different.
Abortion by Black women is often blamed on white women and their feminist ideology is seen as an insidious tool to further eradicate Black people in America, a view held by some anti-choice and self-proclaimed anti-racists, as well as some Black anti-choice activists. This article explores the myth of abortion as Black genocide as it pertains to Black women and their reproductive rights and the arguments used to promote this belief. After defining genocide and the stereotypes used by proponents of the abortion as Black genocide myth in Part I, Part II identifies and describes the past and current proponents of the myth. In Part III, the myth is placed within the ‘herstory’ umbrella, while part IV explores the myth in its current form, including examples of outreach and advertisements by its proponents. Finally, Part V showcases Black women's robust response to this myth and highlights their continued participation in the struggle for Black liberation.
This thesis examines the personal, public and professional life of celebrated abortion rights activist, Patricia Goyette Miller. The first section is based on the writer’s own family relationship to Miller and explores larger questions of archival and biographical work. The second section explores Miller’s life, considering how she came to commit herself to abortion rights activism in Colorado and Pennsylvania. The final section looks towards the future, applying lessons and strategies from Miller’s life to consider the best next steps forward in the current US political context.
Explores how both pro-choice and pro-life supporters have employed language over abortion rights and shaped its debate.
Draws comparisons between the Trump Administration’s isolationist and disunited foreign policy and its consistent approach, both nationally and internationally, towards restrictive sexual and reproductive rights.
Account of the growth of the grassroots campaign against legalised abortion in the US. Whilst other socially conservative movements have lost young activists, the pro-life movement has successfully recruited more young people to its cause. Jennifer Holland explores why abortion dominates conservative politics. She studied anti-abortion movements in four US western states since the 1960s and argues that activists made foetal life feel personal to many Americans. Pro-life activists persuaded people to see themselves in the pins, images of embryos, and dolls and made the fight against abortion the primary day-to-day issue for social conservatives. Holland concludes that the success of the pro-life movement derives from the borrowed logic and emotional power of leftist activism.
Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that declined to hear Alabama’s 2019 bid to revive a Republican-backed state law that would have effectively banned the ‘dismemberment abortion’ procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Through this procedure, the woman’s cervix is dilated and the contents of the uterus removed. The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling that protects woman’s constitutional right to abortion recognized in the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.
Although originally intended to de-stigmatise abortion, the #ShoutYourAbortion Twitter campaign was hijacked by anti-abortionists who linked the hashtag to hundreds of stigmatising anti-abortion messages. Using a Twitter Search API, the authors collected these messages (1,990 tweets) to identify the discursive features of abortion stigma.
Provides detailed information about the abortion laws in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio.
Outlines the result of a social media campaign against Trump and Pence’s decision to curtail women’s right to abortion that saw thousands of people making private donations to Planned Parenthood in the name of Vice President-elect, Mike Pence.
Examines the evolution of the abortion debate since 1970s; the polarization of Republicans and Democrats, and the grassroots movements that have developed through the years.
See also https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/opinion/abortion-roe-science.html
Scholar-activists Loretta Ross and Ricki Solinger provide an intersectional analysis of race, class, and gender politics and focus on the experiences of women of colour. They use a human rights analysis to show how the discussion around ‘reproductive justice’ differs significantly from the pro-choice/anti-abortion arguments that have long dominated the debate. They argue that reproductive justice is a political movement for reproductive rights and social justice, and highlight the complex web of structural obstacles facing women of different background.
Discusses the women’s resistance movement that developed in the context of the incoming Trump’s presidency and the subsequent creation of the ‘Me Too’ movement, with particular regard to the restrictions on abortion and contraception put in place by the forty-fifth’ U.S. Administration.
Reports on the legally aggressive strategy over abortion that Republican lawmakers have pursued since 2010 in at least five U.S. states. Provides detailed charts that show typologies of ‘abortion restriction’ state legislatures; examines how states have restricted abortion access, and makes prediction on how the Alabama Supreme Court’s conservative majority might legislate in light of the 2020 elections.
Mary Ziegler examines how Roe influenced a wide range of issues, including sexual liberty and the right to refuse medical treatment. The author explores a much wider range of political protest than simply abortion, and describes how social movements debated the meaning of privacy and struggled to use this concept to pursue political ends.
Since the Supreme Court seems likely to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision, American debate appears fixated on clashing rights. This work draws attention to an entirely different and unexpected shift in the terms of debate: instead of simply championing their own rights, those on opposing sides debated about the policy costs and benefits of abortion vs. the laws restricting it. This mostly unrecognized development deepened polarization. Whilst maintaining their constitutional demands, pro-choice and pro-life advocates increasingly disagreed about the basic facts. Drawing on unexplored records and interviews with key participants, Ziegler challenges the view that the Supreme Court is primarily responsible for the escalation of the conflict and charts social-movements divides and crucial legal strategies.
The online version of Vol. 1 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). ICNC is an independent, non-profit educational foundation that develops and encourages the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies aimed at establishing and defending human rights, democratic self-rule and justice worldwide.
For more information about ICNC, please see their website.
The online version of Vol. 2 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of The Network for Social Change. The Network for Social Change is a group of individuals providing funding for progressive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, peace and the environment.
For more information about The Network for Social Change, please visit their website.
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