Terminating a Wanted Pregnancy: A Feminist, Analytic Autoethnographic Account

Abstract

With screening for fetal anomaly becoming more common, more families are faced with making decisions based on receiving fetal anomaly diagnoses after the first trimester. After receiving a diagnosis of fetal anomaly, which is typically associated with shock and denial, pregnant people and couples immediately become faced with a difficult decision of either continuing or terminating the pregnancy. Once a pregnancy termination decision has been made, following abortion of a wanted pregnancy, feelings of grief and sadness are common. While research has been done on the impact of decision-making and mental health diagnoses pre- and post-terminating a wanted pregnancy, there has been little research detailing effective coping strategies for dealing with these unexpected and devastating circumstances. The current study is a feminist analytic autoethnography, which details the experience of my own abortion through a reflexive account. I aim to explore my own methods of coping that were successful as I overcame grief, guilt, and anxiety after terminating my wanted pregnancy due to a fetal anomaly.

Framing Personal Experiences in U.S. Media Outlets: Critical Analysis of Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Anomalies

“…"The political mother" (Alvarez et al, 2022), who works to engage in legislative advocacy activities to change existing policies and pending ballot measures, is just one of these identities. This is validated by Guy (2022), who describes taking part in many media interviews to positively channel her grief through activism; subsequently recognizing that this was a negative coping technique to ignore the emotional grief https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2024-33zhw Content not peer-reviewed by Cambridge University Press. License: CC BY 4.0 process.…”

“…Several studies examined the decision-making process patients (and their partners) Ramos et al, 2022;and Qin et al, 2019. There also was a third group focused on coping mechanisms, as seen in the studies by Guy, 2022 andSmith et al, 2021. Three studies -Goldblatt Hyatt & McCoyd, 2022;Kerns et al, 2018;and Qin et al, 2019 also sought to develop guidelines or frameworks with varying goals to improve how clinicians support patients and partners who must navigate a diagnosis of fetal anomaly and decide for or against TFA.…”

“…Another common theme among studies by Alvarez et al, 2022 andGuy, 2022 were the different identities that emerge after one experiences TFA. "The political mother" (Alvarez et al, 2022), who works to engage in legislative advocacy activities to change existing policies and pending ballot measures, is just one of these identities.…”