Body and embodiment in the experience of abortion for Mexican women: the sexual body, the fertile body, and the body of abortion

Abstract

In April 2007, Mexico City's Legislative Assembly passed a law that decriminalized abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, and established that the Ministry of Health was to provide the service. This has allowed Mexican women to seek a legal termination of pregnancy (LTP) without any legal procedure at all, therefore setting different coordinates for the experience. This article explores the above issues through the qualitative analysis of 24 interviews with women who had an LTP in Mexico City public clinics during 2008 and 2009. The way the body is discursively constructed during the process of voluntary abortion is discussed, by looking at how its materiality is present in women's narratives. Consequently, the relations established between the subject and her body in the context of pregnancy and its termination are also looked at. The analysis shows that three kinds of embodiment come through in women's narratives of their experience of abortion: the sexual body, the fertile body, and the body of abortion.

Abortion stigma, class and embodiment in neoliberal England

“…Approaching stigma discursively rather than as a 'thing' that is possessed or transferred allows an examination of these classed ways of constructing meaning and negotiating stigma. Furthermore, some women's accounts of the embodied experience of abortion provide insight into the strict regulation of the body that accompanies contemporary middle-class femininity, and therefore sheds light on historically specific forms of subjectification and stigma (Amuchástegui 2013).…”

“…In particular, she was able to revalue the 'actual fleshy being' of her bodytraditionally associated with the 'unruly bodies' of working-class women and therefore denied value (Skeggs 1997)as something to be embraced rather than restricted. The result, rather than an embodiment of felt stigma, was an expression of self-care and a restoration of the 'relationship between her subject and her body' (Amuchástegui 2013).…”

“Las tres opciones son asumir la responsabilidad, regalarlo o abortar”: representaciones sociales de la continuación del embarazo, la adopción y el aborto entre adolescentes de Soacha y el suroccidente de Bogotá

“…Ella está en proceso psicológico y eso, pero ella quiere mucho a ese niño. Estas escasas respuestas en torno a considerar el aborto como una opción viable, cuyas manifestaciones se encuentran en Latinoamérica, están enmarcadas en un contexto sociocultural en el cual la valoración de la maternidad se alimenta de los discursos provenientes del catolicismo (23). En el caso de las adolescentes participantes, quienes comentaron que las mujeres iban a tener un cargo de conciencia o podían sufrir traumas después de abortar, fue frecuente mencionar un castigo divino: "mi Dios no se queda con esas cosas", "qué tal que no pudiera tener hijos cuando quisiera", "o que de pronto le salga con una deformidad", "si Dios manda un bebé, es por algo".…”

“…Estos sistemas patriarcales, además, están enmarcados en sistemas de valores provenientes del catolicismo que priorizan al feto sobre las mujeres (23,25). Estos contextos ponen especial énfasis a la vida del feto, y han encontrado en las tecnologías del ultrasonido una forma de fortalecer la idea de un feto-sujeto al darle forma visual.…”