No real choice : how culture and politics matter for reproductive autonomy / Katrina Kimport.
"Why would a pregnant woman consider but not obtain an abortion? In the contemporary United States, most would assume she wants to have a baby. Increasing policy regulation and cultural stigmatization of abortion, however, challenge this as a universal explanation. What if some women continue t...
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| Online Access: |
Full Text (via EBSCO) |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New Brunswick :
Rutgers University Press,
[2022]
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| Series: | Families in focus.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "Why would a pregnant woman consider but not obtain an abortion? In the contemporary United States, most would assume she wants to have a baby. Increasing policy regulation and cultural stigmatization of abortion, however, challenge this as a universal explanation. What if some women continue their pregnancies after considering abortion not because they want to have a baby but, instead, because they can't get an abortion? In No Real Choice, Katrina Kimport uses in-depth interviews with pregnant women who considered but did not obtain an abortion to argue that not everyone who continues a pregnancy wants to have a baby. Some are doing so because abortion was not a real option. Illustrating how policies, the organization of abortion care, anti-abortion cultural narratives, and negative prior experiences of reproductive healthcare can make abortion unavailable for some women, Kimport challenges assumptions that all women have real pregnancy choice. Further, by centering the experiences of low-income Black women, she demonstrates that none of these factors operates in isolation: each leverages existing race and class inequality to construct insurmountable barriers to choosing abortion. When abortion is not a real option, reproductive autonomy is denied. The concern, Kimport argues, is not what outcome pregnant women choose, but whether they are able to make a real choice. Focusing attention on the process of pregnancy decision making-and not just pregnancy outcomes-Kimport provides a nuanced, accessible, and theoretically-grounded framework for understanding how reproductive autonomy is denied, for whom, and at what cost"-- In the United States, the "right to choose" an abortion is the law of the land. But what if a woman continues her pregnancy because she didn't really have a choice? What if state laws, federal policies, stigma, and a host of other obstacles push that choice out of her reach? Based on candid, in-depth interviews with women who considered but did not obtain an abortion, No Real Choice punctures the myth that American women have full autonomy over their reproductive choices. Focusing on the experiences of a predominantly Black and low-income group of women, sociologist Katrina Kimport finds that structural, cultural, and experiential factors can make choosing abortion impossible--especially for those who experience racism and class discrimination. From these conversations, we see the obstacles to "choice" these women face, such as bans on public insurance coverage of abortion and rampant antiabortion claims that abortion is harmful. Kimport's interviews reveal that even as activists fight to preserve Roe v. Wade, class and racial disparities have already curtailed many women's freedom of choice. No Real Choice analyzes both the structural obstacles to abortion and the cultural ideologies that try to persuade women not to choose abortion. Told with care and sensitivity, No Real Choice gives voice to women whose experiences are often overlooked in debates on abortion, illustrating how real reproductive choice is denied, for whom, and at what cost. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (v, 203 pages) |
| ISBN: | 9781978817937 1978817932 9781978817951 1978817959 9781978817944 1978817940 |