A Good Abortion Is a Tragic Abortion
Fit Motherhood and Disability Stigma
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12147281 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Claire Mckinney (0000-0003-1967-7719, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 266-285 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Hypatia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0887-5367 • E-ISSN: 1527-2001 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/hypa.12461 |
| OpenAlex | W2917869825 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 23 |
In the context of abortion stigma, most abortion stories remain untold. The stories we do tell of abortion are often told to morally recuperate the status of the woman who has an abortion through a recourse to tragedy. Tragedy frames experiences where every choice produces some suffering, so decisions are geared toward maintaining individual integrity rather than adherence to absolute moral truths. This article argues that one dominant tragic abortion narrative, that of the disabled fetus, works to recuperate the moral status of “fit” mothers while actively constructing disabled lives as unlivable and undesirable. The option to stigmatize disability in recuperating the moral status of the woman who has an abortion relies on eugenic logics that also construct a variety of women (racialized, poor, disabled, and young) as illegitimate reproductive subjects. The article analyzes narratives of Sherri Finkbine's 1962 abortion in relation to contemporary narratives of late‐term abortions involving nonviable fetuses to expose how investment in medical judgments of good births enables particular women to make use of tragic narratives to maintain their status as moral mothers without disturbing broader abortion stigma or eugenic logics
Abortion · Eugenics · Narrative · Political science · Pregnancy · Psychiatry · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Tragedy (event · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Contraception · Reproductive Health and Technologies
Sterilized by the State
Abortion incidence between 1990 and 2014
Testing Women, Testing the Fetus
Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights
Foucault's Futures
Dangerous Pregnancies
Emergency Politics
Abortion Stigma
Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014
Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions
Who Seeks Abortions at or After 20 Weeks
Prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion
Abortion in America
Conceptualising abortion stigma
Abortion, Race, and Gender in Nineteenth-Century America
The Things We Cannot Say
"The Inadequacy of "Choice
Race, Gender, and Genetic Technologies
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,33 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |