Understanding and Responding to Anti-choice Women-centred Strategies
This paper discusses the rise and use of a ‘woman-centred’ anti-choice strategy to oppose abortion in Australia and the USA. It argues that this strategy seeks to imitate and exploit aspects of the pro-choice, women-centred position on abortion. The strategy contends that women do not really choose abortion but are pressured into it by others and then experience a range of negative effects afterwards, including an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility and post-abortion grief. Rather than evaluate the truth of such claims, this paper seeks to explicate from a feminist perspective the design, intent and implications of this strategy and how it is being used in legislative tactics, counselling, law suits and anti-choice activism. Such an analysis is necessary for pro-choice efforts to respond effectively to this new strategy, not only through literal rebuttals based on evidence, but also through responses that counter its ideological power.
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The Book of Rachael What if the man you loved betrayed your brother? Two thousand years ago, as a charismatic young preacher from Nazareth was gathering followers among the people of Galilee, his sister swept floors and dreamed of learning to read.
What, No Baby? takes us on journey into the lives of contemporary women who plan to have it all - marriage, motherhood and work - yet have been derailed by reluctant men, insatiably demanding jobs and ever-climbing expectations of what it takes to be a "good" mother.
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The Abortion Myth forges a new women-centred abortion ethic capable of preserving a woman's right to control her body and her freedom to choose or reject motherhood.