The geography of abortion: Discourse, spatiality and mobility

Abstract

Abortion has historically been ignored in geography. Although bodies and pregnancy have been increasingly studied since the 1990s, a reticence around abortion remains. In recent years, however, this has begun to change. This article critically reviews how geographers and other scholars are now considering abortion and uses three conceptual lenses of discourse, spatiality and mobility to argue that abortion should be a mainstream topic of critical concern for geographers. Through these themes we show that geographical attention to abortion makes questions of space, power, and citizenship visible in new ways and, furthermore, in ways that are only recently possible.

The Chemical Geographies of Misoprostol: Spatializing Abortion Access from the Biochemical to the Global

“…Geographers have begun to examine how the mobility of abortion pills has fundamentally transformed the spatiality of abortion access. Rather than people moving from locations where they cannot access an abortion to one where they can ( Freeman 2017 ), the movement of pills to people can support them to end their pregnancies on their own terms ( Calkin 2020 ; Calkin and Freeman 2019 ; Calkin, Freeman and Moore 2022 ; Engle 2022 ; Freeman 2020 ). Mobility is central to understanding abortion they argue, because, “across scales, from the clinic to the nation-state, bodies, pills and knowledge are on the move in ways that reflect, reinforce and contest power relations” ( Calkin, Freeman and Moore 2022 , 1416).…”

Abortion as a sociological case

“…The geography of abortion regulation and its consequences, in other words, is not exclusively spatial. 168 Regulation of abortion, moreover, notably lacks protections for conscientious provision. 169 As scholars of organizations have demonstrated, hospitals and private practices constrain physicians' ability to provide abortion care, even when they are trained and interested in doing so.…”

“…The case of abortion enables law and society scholars to explore the long shadow of social narratives—and social panic—into seemingly unrelated regulatory areas. The geography of abortion regulation and its consequences, in other words, is not exclusively spatial 168 …”

Geography and ethics II: Justification and the ethics of anti-oppression

“…Jeremy J Schmidt  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9155-1777 Notes 1. Foote's 1967 essay targeted debates about abortion that, as Calkin et al (2022)…”

“…1.Foote’s 1967 essay targeted debates about abortion that, as Calkin et al (2022) show, are especially relevant to contemporary geographies.…”