The Politicization of Abortion and the Evolution of Abortion Counseling

Joffe, Carole

doi:10.2105/ajph.2012.301063

Cited by 38 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Our conceptual framework provides alternatives to evasive noncompliance by describing several additional strategies adopted by abortion providers in their clinical practice to act conscientiously within legal constraints. Procedural strategies undertaken by providers in our study to distance themselves from the law give empirical weight to Davis and Kodish's speculations about “undignified scenes of exaggerated winks and nods or perhaps of the physician reading the required ‘information’ while shaking her head in a violent negative.” Likewise, the relational strategies we identified are particularly fitting for abortion care, which has a long history of providing supportive, nonjudgmental counseling designed to make women feel welcome and safe …”

Section: Reframing Refusalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing Conscientious Care: Providing Abortion Care When Law and Conscience Collide

Buchbinder¹,

Lassiter²,

Mercier³

et al. 2016

Hastings Center Report

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While the concept of conscience has broad philosophical underpinnings relating to moral judgment, agency, and discernments of right and wrong, debates in bioethics have tended to engage the concept primarily vis-à-vis rights of conscientious refusal. Here, we suggest a broader frame for thinking about claims of conscience in healthcare. Drawing on empirical findings from our research with abortion providers in North Carolina, we elucidate an empirically grounded approach to ethically justified care when healthcare providers face legal or institutional policy mandates that raise possible moral conflicts. We highlight, in particular, how providers may be motivated by matters of conscience, including relational concerns, in the active provision of certain forms of care. In so doing, we challenge the dichotomy between conscientious refusal and morally compromised action, demonstrating how providers may work within the constraints of laws or institutional policies that raise moral challenges and act in accordance with conscience.

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Section: Reframing Refusalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing Conscientious Care: Providing Abortion Care When Law and Conscience Collide

Buchbinder¹,

Lassiter²,

Mercier³

et al. 2016

Hastings Center Report

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show abstract

“…It might help health care professionals offer safer, more acceptable, and therefore more effective care. Given that reproductive health care professionals may work within "beleaguered" systems [55], structural competency is a means to empower these professionals to face occupational difficulties and organize for transformative change [56]. Because changes in structure cannot be achieved by individuals alone, structurally competent reproductive health care will take collective force, skill, and imagination but can ultimately play a key role in helping health care professionals to advance a vision of reproductive health as part of complete community well-being, to the benefit of patients and professionals alike.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural Competency and Reproductive Health

2018

AMA Journal of Ethics

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Reproductive health disparities-particularly those experienced by racial and ethnic minority groups-are considered a persistent public health issue in the United States. Frameworks that focus on social determinants of health seek to identify the forces producing these disparities, particularly social conditions that create vulnerability to premature death and disease. Such frameworks pose challenges to health care provision, as structural factors can seem immutable to health care professionals trained to treat individual patients. Here, we discuss the links between reproductive health disparities and social determinants of health. We then apply to reproductive health care the structural competency framework, developed by physician-scholars to encourage health care professionals to address health disparities by analyzing and intervening upon sociopolitical forces.

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“…Following Roe , the field of abortion counseling emerged in partnership with feminist health activists to address this need. Counseling typically includes education about the technical aspects of the procedure, discussing patients’ emotional experience, and obtaining informed consent (Joffe ). Therefore, to some extent, the state‐mandated counseling was simply redundant.…”

Section: North Carolina and Women's “Right To Know”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Scripting Dissent: US Abortion Laws, State Power, and the Politics of Scripted Speech

Buchbinder

2016

American Anthropologist

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Abortion laws offer a point of entry for "the state" to intervene in intimate clinical matters. In this article, I explore the various uses of scripts and scripting in state-mandated abortion counseling following the implementation of North Carolina's (2011) Woman's "Right to Know" Act. The law mandates that women receive counseling with specific, state-prescribed information at least 24 hours prior to an abortion. Drawing on interviews with abortion providers in North Carolina, I analyze how the meaning of scripting shifts across different clinical and bureaucratic contexts and show that abortion providers perceived themselves to be scripted by "the state" even though their words were not explicitly chosen by lawmakers. Thus, rather than viewing the law merely as a product of North Carolina legislative activity, I argue that abortion providers also help to create the law, and its social and moral power, by interpreting and enacting it. However, abortion providers also revealed creative strategies for "scripting dissent" from the law-that is, rejecting, challenging, or otherwise subverting the state's ideological message. This demonstrates that the linguistic force of the script stretches beyond its textual meaning to encompass the way it is performed within a particular context and how it is sometimes used for unexpected ends. [abortion, reproduction, biopolitics, the state, law, medicine, United States] RESUMEN Las leyes sobre el aborto ofrecen un punto de entrada para la intervención del "Estado" en temas clínicos de la intimidad. En este artículo exploro los varios usos de las guías y escritura de las mismas en el asesoramiento mandado por el Estado para los casos de aborto siguiendo la implementación de la Ley "del Derecho a Saber" de la Mujer (2011) en Carolina del Norte. La ley determina que las mujeres reciban asesoramiento con información especifica, prescrita por el Estado al menos 24 horas antes del aborto. Basada en entrevistas con los que practican abortos en Carolina del Norte, analizo cómo el significado de la escritura de las guías varía a través de los diferentes contextos clínicos y burocráticos y muestro que los que practican abortos se perciben así mismos como instruidos por "el Estado" aunque sus palabras no fueron explícitamente seleccionadas por los legisladores. Por consiguiente, en vez de mirar la ley meramente como un producto de la actividad legislativa de Carolina del Norte, argumento que los que practican abortos también ayudan a crear la ley, y su poder social y moral, al interpretarla y promulgarla. Sin embargo, los que practican abortos también revelaron estrategias creativas para el "disentimiento en la escritura de las guías" de la ley-esto es, rechazando, retando o de otra manera subvirtiendo el mensaje ideológico del Estado.Esto demuestra que la fuerza lingüística de las guías se extiende más allá de sus significados textuales para incluir la manera en que son representadas dentro un contexto particular y cómo son algunas veces usadas para fines imprevistos. [aborto, repro...

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The Politicization of Abortion and the Evolution of Abortion Counseling

Cited by 38 publications

References 1 publication

Reframing Conscientious Care: Providing Abortion Care When Law and Conscience Collide

Reframing Conscientious Care: Providing Abortion Care When Law and Conscience Collide

Structural Competency and Reproductive Health

Scripting Dissent: US Abortion Laws, State Power, and the Politics of Scripted Speech

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