Racial Politics of Frozen Embryo Personhood in the US Antiabortion Movement

Cromer, Risa

doi:10.1111/traa.12145

Cited by 21 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Advocates maintain that IVF embryos bear intrinsic worth as “pre‐born children,” require “rescue” from “frozen orphanages,” and should be recognized as persons, socially, legally, and morally. These are positions consistent with absolutist branches of antiabortion politics and white evangelical politics (Bjork‐James 2021; Cromer 2019). Evangelical efforts to save IVF embryos from freezers aligns with their broader political vision of rescuing the possibility of a whiter, righter Christian America 5…”

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confidence: 59%

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Saving: Towards a Feminist Reckoning

Cromer

2022

Feminist Anthropology

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Lila Abu-Lughod suggested saving as a keyword twenty years ago by imploring feminist anthropologists to "be wary" saving discourses and actions, especially when they appear in a sympathetic form. Heeding this call in a sustained way remains a crucial task. Being wary of saving in a systematic way investigates what gives it broad-reaching appeal and power; how and where saving rhetoric is wielded by diverse agents; and why and how particular life-forms are deemed worthy of protection while many others are not. Being wary of saving supports reflexive considerations of how saving discourses operate within anthropology broadly, and feminist anthropology specifically, toward clarifying what an otherwise world "beyond" or "without" saving could look like. Keywords anthropology, reproductive politics, savingLila Abu-Lughod (2002) suggested saving as a keyword for feminist anthropologists twenty years ago. 1 In asking "Do Muslim women really need saving?" she drew critical attention to the violences of saving rhetoric that propelled post-September 11 geopolitics. The US military invasion of Afghanistan was framed as saving Muslim women from reductive renderings of Islam. 2 As US politicians deployed saving rhetoric to justify the "war on terror," there was a proliferation of what Abu-Lughod calls "neat cultural icons" that were "plastered over messier historical and political narratives" (2013, 34). Muslim women, cast as oppressed gendered and racialized religious Others, became the quintessential targets for saving. As then-First Lady Laura Bush claimed, these women "are no longer imprisoned in their homes … because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan" (Abu-Lughod 2013, 32). In turn, Islam was framed as a "special and threatening culture-the most homogenized and the most troubling of the Rest" (Abu-Lughod 2013, 6). The United States positioned itself as a righteous liberator of Muslim women from "the world the Taliban-and-theterrorists would 'like to impose on the rest of us'" (Abu-Lughod 2013, 34) by advancing the ideals of Western Christian liberal democracy with the most violent military in the world. The significance of Abu-Lughod's scholarship is once again clear as US media becomes awash with saving discourse following the Taliban's regaining of power in Afghanistan in August 2021 (Portnoy 2021).Abu-Lughod implored feminist anthropologists to "be wary" (2013, 47) of saving, especially when it appears in a sympathetic form. To illustrate, she showed how claims that US military invasions and occupations in the Middle East were "a fight for the rights and dignity of women" (32) shared "uncanny echoes" (47) with late-nineteenth-century Christian missionaries and colonial feminists "who devoted their lives to saving their Muslim sisters" (47), as well as with contemporary trends in mainstream US feminism. 3 Being wary of the "virtuous goals" (47) of saving when wielded by rightwing, religious, and war-mongering politicians may be an easier task than sustaining skepticism of

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confidence: 59%

“…55For a fuller elaboration of this claim, refer to the discussion below about proxies. See also Cromer 2019, Cromer 2020, and my forthcoming book on the subject with NYU Press.…”

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confidence: 99%

Saving: Towards a Feminist Reckoning

Cromer

2022

Feminist Anthropology

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“…This ruling is already affecting women's health care in many ways that extend beyond undesired pregnancy (Paltrow et al 2022;Premkumar and Wendland 2022). Standard medical practices such as superovulation for infertility treatment, IUD placement, storage and selection of frozen embryos, or use of medication to treat ectopic pregnancy are curtailed or under question (Arey et al 2022;Cromer 2019;Harris 2022). Non-pregnant women have reported being denied teratogenic drugs such as methotrexate for chronic illness management (Sharp 2022;Weiss 2022).…”

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confidence: 99%

Society for Medical Anthropology Statement on Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Decision

et al. 2022

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This statement summarizes key findings from anthropological and related scholarship on the harmful consequences of inadequate abortion access, leading the Society for Medical Anthropology to register profound concern about the recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson. After circulation to SMA members for input, a finalized version passed a membership vote by an overwhelming margin. This statement complements one produced by the Council for Anthropology and Reproduction, available here.

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“…The under-regulated US fertility industry has distinct ‘Wild West’ qualities ( Inhorn and Birenbaum, 2008 ) that contribute to the estimated surplus of 1 million embryos in fertility clinic storage across the country ( Lomax and Trounson, 2013 ). The central role of religion in American politics ( Brown, 2002 ; FitzGerald, 2017 ; Putnam and Campbell, 2012 ), including opposition to abortion ( Ginsburg, 1989 ; Petchesky, 1990 ), presented favourable conditions for the emergence of ‘embryo adoption’ ( Cromer, 2019b ).…”

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confidence: 99%

‘Our family picture is a little hint of heaven’: race, religion and selective reproduction in US ‘embryo adoption’

Cromer¹

2020

Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online

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People use selective reproductive technologies (SRT) in various family-making practices to assist with decisions about which children should be born. The practice of 'embryo adoption', a form of embryo donation developed by white American evangelical Christians in the late 1990s, is a novel site for reconceptualizing SRT and examining how they function among users. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2008 and 2018 on US 'embryo adoption', this study provides an anthropological analysis of media produced by and about one white evangelical couple's race-specific preferences for embryos from donors of colour. This article shows how racializing processes and religious beliefs function as mutually reinforcing SRT for some 'embryo adoption' participants. Evangelical convictions justify racialized preferences, and racializing processes within and beyond the church reinforce religious acts. Race-specific preferences for embryos among white evangelicals promote selective decision-making not for particular kinds of children, a current focus in studies of SRT, but for particular kinds of families. This study expands the framework of SRT to include selection for wanted family forms and technologies beyond biomedical techniques, such as social technologies like racial constructs and religious convictions. Broadly, this article encourages greater attention to religion within analyses about race and reproduction by revealing how they are deeply entwined with Christianity, especially in the USA. Wherever constructions of race and religious convictions co-exist with selective reproductive decision-making, scholars should consider race, reproduction and religion as inextricable, rather than distinct, domains of analysis.

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Racial Politics of Frozen Embryo Personhood in the US Antiabortion Movement

Cited by 21 publications

References 46 publications

Saving: Towards a Feminist Reckoning

Saving: Towards a Feminist Reckoning

Society for Medical Anthropology Statement on Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Decision

‘Our family picture is a little hint of heaven’: race, religion and selective reproduction in US ‘embryo adoption’

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