The Changing Landscape of Self-Managed Abortion: Embodied Experiences in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

• In Event: 2354 - Reproductive Justice and Governance

Abstract

The private use of abortion medication outside of the formal healthcare setting is an international phenomenon. Despite this changing landscape of reproductive healthcare, we know little about women’s perceptions and emotions of self-managed abortion. The following study serves to illuminate the embodied experience of abortion in settings where social stigma and legal access are major barriers to care. Analyzing a rich source of interview data from people who recently sought abortion care in The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, I find that the method and location of care they used (medication vs. surgical abortion and abortion at home vs. in a clinical setting) shape both the physical and emotional experience of abortion. Taking individual perceptions and experiences as my point of interest, I consider the ways the biological, social, and structural shape meaning and experience. First, I analyze women’s discourse about what they see and feel during their abortion, accounting specifically for descriptions of pain and perceptions of the fetus. Contrary to previous reproductive technologies, the use of medication abortion restores women’s experiential knowledge, allowing them to relate their experience to other natural bodily processes and redefining beliefs about pregnancy and the fetus. Second, I explore the role stigma as it relates to the space and place of abortion. Stigma was a major challenge among both women who traveled abroad to access care as well as those who self-managed at home. Those in the latter group minimized medical risks relative to social, financial, and emotional risks. This analysis serves to illuminate women’s embodied experiences of abortion in light of new technological advancements in access and provision.

Author

• Kathleen Broussard, University of Texas