9. The Medical Framework and Early Medical Abortion in the U.K.: How Can a State Control Swallowing?

Sheldon, Sally

doi:10.9783/9780812209990.189

Cited by 23 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…Although it has facilitated liberal abortion provision, the Abortion Act constructs abortion as a “deviant” practice which requires regulation and positions women as incapable of reproductive decision-making (Boyle, 1997; Fyfe, 1991; Jackson, 2001; Lee, 2003, 2004; Sheldon, 1997, 2016). Negative framings of abortion are also generated by an entrenched anti-abortion lobby that depicts foetuses as individual persons (Franklin, 1991) and women who have abortions as the unwitting victims of a procedure which inevitably leaves them physically and psychologically damaged (Amery, 2014; Hoggart, 2015; Hopkins, Reicher, & Saleem, 1996).…”

Section: Abortion In Public Discourse In Great Britainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untroubling abortion: A discourse analysis of women’s accounts

Beynon-Jones

2017

Feminism & Psychology

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In this paper, I highlight key differences between a discourse analytic approach to women's accounts of abortion and that taken by the growing body of research that seeks to explore and measure women's experiences of abortion stigma. Drawing on critical analyses of the conceptualisation of stigma in other fields of healthcare, I suggest that research on abortion stigma often risks reifying it by failing to consider how identities are continually re-negotiated through language-use. In contrast, by attending to language as a form of social action, discursive psychology makes it possible to emphasise speakers' capacity to construct ''untroubled'' (i.e. non-stigmatised) identities, while acknowledging that this process is constrained by the contexts in which talk takes place. My analysis applies these insights to interviews with women concerning their experiences of having an abortion in England. I highlight three forms of discursive work through which women navigate ''trouble'' in their accounts of abortion, and critically consider the resources available for meaning-making within this particular context of talk. In doing so, I aim to provoke reflection about the discursive frameworks through which women's accounts of abortion are solicited and explored.

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Section: Abortion In Public Discourse In Great Britainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untroubling abortion: A discourse analysis of women’s accounts

Beynon-Jones

2017

Feminism & Psychology

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“…This abortion law, as feminist scholars have emphasised, gives British women no right to abortion at any stage in pregnancy (Boyle, 1997; Sheldon, 1997). Rather, through its Section 1, it allows “registered medical practitioners” to legally provide abortion on the basis of their “good faith” assessments of the woman’s health and circumstances.…”

Section: Conclusion: a Social Problem In Search Of Groundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sheldon (1997) details how doctors’ authority, or “medical power”, has been central to the operation of abortion law and practice in Britain. Claims about sex selection abortion, however, called this authority into question on the basis that its exercise harms women.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing abortion as a social problem: “Sex selection” and the British abortion debate

Lee

2017

Feminism & Psychology

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Between February 2012 and March 2015, the claim that sex selection abortion was taking place in Britain and that action needed to be taken to stop it dominated debate in Britain about abortion. Situating an analysis in sociological and social psychological approaches to the construction of social problems, particularly those considering “feminised” re-framings of anti-abortion arguments, this paper presents an account of this debate. Based on analysis of media coverage, Parliamentary debate and official documents, we focus on claims about grounds (evidence) made to sustain the case that sex selection abortion is a British social problem and highlight how abortion was problematised in new ways. Perhaps most notable, we argue, was the level of largely unchallenged vilification of abortion doctors and providers, on the grounds that they are both law violators and participants in acts of discrimination and violence against women, especially those of Asian heritage. We draw attention to the role of claims made by feminists in the media and in Parliament about “gendercide” as part of this process and argue that those supportive of access to abortion need to critically assess both this aspect of the events and also consider arguments about the problems of “medical power” in the light of what took place.

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“…However, in these three countries abortion is medicalised as, legally, doctors decide if women can have an abortion rather than the women themselves 18. In the author's view, such laws, which leave women dependent on the vagaries of medical discretion and goodwill, should be challenged 18…”

Section: Classification Of Abortion Laws In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Abortion: a disunited Europe

Rowlands

2015

J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care

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9. The Medical Framework and Early Medical Abortion in the U.K.: How Can a State Control Swallowing?

Cited by 23 publications

References 0 publications

Untroubling abortion: A discourse analysis of women’s accounts

Untroubling abortion: A discourse analysis of women’s accounts

Constructing abortion as a social problem: “Sex selection” and the British abortion debate

Abortion: a disunited Europe

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