Scripting Dissent

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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2258902
AutoresM Buchbinder (0000-0002-2319-662X, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume118
Fascículo4
Páginas772-783
Data de publicação2016-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-7294 • E-ISSN: 1548-1433
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/aman.12680
OpenAlexW2520188552
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas58

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

Abortion · Abortion law · Context (archaeology · Dissent · Family planning · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Scripting language · Sociology · State (computer science · Computer Science · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Psychology