Uneasy allies: pro‐choice physicians, feminist health activists and the struggle for abortion rights

Abstract

Abortion represents a particularly interesting subject for a social movements analysis of healthcare issues because of the involvement of both feminist pro-choice activists and a segment of the medical profession. Although both groups have long shared the same general goal of legal abortion, the alliance has over time been an uneasy one, and in many ways a contradictory one. This paper traces points of convergence as well as points of contention between the two groups, specifically: highlighting the tensions between the feminist view of abortion as a women-centred service, with a limited, 'technical' role for the physicians, and the abortionproviding physicians' logic of further medicalization/professional upgrading of abortion services as a response to the longstanding marginality and stigmatisation of abortion providers. Only by noting the evolving relationships between these two crucial sets of actors can one fully understand the contemporary abortion rights movement. We conclude by speculating about similar patterns in medical/lay relationships in other health social movements where 'dissident doctors' and lay activists are similarly seeking recognition for medical services that are controversial.

Abortion Liberalization in World Society, 1960–2009

“…For example, women's physical and mental health was a major point of discussion in the United States in the decades prior to Roe v. Wade (Calderone 1960; Kummer 1967; Ziegler 2009). Furthermore, the Roe v. Wade decision itself was rooted in a medical understanding of pregnancy and, in particular, the professional autonomy of physicians (Rhoden 1986; Joffe, Weitz, and Stacey 2004). …”

“…In addition, more physicians within a country indicates the influence of medical discourses there. For example, Joffe et al (2004) describe how abortion policies in the United States have been largely influenced by physicians' attempts to integrate some abortion services into mainstream medical practices as part of a larger professionalization project. This leads us to hypothesize that greater numbers of physicians per capita will be associated with abortion liberalization .…”

Second Trimester Abortion Provision: Breaking the Silence and Changing the Discourse

“…As US sociologists have documented, there already is a history of an uneasy and oftentimes contradictory relationship between feminist activists and abortion providers. 20 The feminist health activist seeks to make abortion: ''a woman-centred service, with a limited 'technical' role for the physicians''. However, the abortion-providing physician, in part as a response to the long history of stigmatisation of abortion as ''dirty work'', desires to further medicalise and professionalise abortion services.…”

The genesis of collective health in Brazil

“…Although most studies on health movements focus on social groups of users who are opposed to medical power (Brown and Zavestoski 2004) or analyse doctors' participation in the formulation of specific policies (Pinell 2002b(Pinell , 2002a in relation to specific social health movements, such as abortion (Joffe et al 2004), a Brazilian case study of the emergence of collective health reveals the predominant participation of physicians in creating an interdisciplinary space geared towards the production of knowledge and anti-hegemonic health practices.…”