Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Historical Context: Feminism and Reproductive Rights
- Sociological Theories of Bodily Autonomy
- Methodological Approaches
- Contemporary Debates and Contested Discourses
- Abortion, Identity, and Subjectivity
- Abortion and Social Movements: Case Studies
- Policy Trends and Sociological Implications
- The Future of Abortion and Feminist Praxis
- Conclusion
Introduction
Abortion has long stood at the fulcrum of feminist struggle, symbolising the contest over women’s bodily autonomy, citizenship, and moral authority. In sociology, abortion is not merely a medical procedure; it is a social fact that expresses and reproduces power relations across gender, class, race, religion, and nation. This article unpacks the sociological dimensions of abortion through a feminist lens, offering undergraduate readers an accessible yet theoretically rigorous exploration of how reproductive politics shape—and are shaped by—broader social structures. Drawing on historical context, multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks, and contemporary debates, the discussion illuminates why abortion remains a critical site of feminist contention and a barometer of gender equality.
Historical Context: Feminism and Reproductive Rights
Early Feminist Waves and Abortion Politics
The relationship between abortion and feminism dates back to the first‐wave campaigns of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early feminists recognised reproductive control as foundational to women’s emancipation, yet their strategies were often circumscribed by prevailing moral codes. By the 1920s, birth‐control activism led by Margaret Sanger reframed abortion from a moral transgression into a public‐health crisis, laying groundwork for broader reproductive rights discourses. Crucially, this period witnessed the legal entrenchment of what scholars call the maternalist bargain: women’s social citizenship was recognised through motherhood rather than sexual autonomy. Legalisation campaigns thus oscillated between framing abortion as an exception to preserve maternal life and as an unqualified right tied to gender equality.
Interwar and Post‑War Shifts
Between the 1930s and 1950s, economic depression and global war generated contradictory pressures. Pronatalist state policies in fascist regimes restricted abortion, while clandestine networks of midwives and activists sustained abortion undergrounds. After World War II, welfare states in Western Europe gradually expanded access to contraception and therapeutic abortion, linking reproductive health to modernisation. Yet in many colonies, restrictive laws introduced by imperial powers persisted, foreshadowing contemporary Global South inequalities.
The Emergence of Reproductive Justice Frameworks
Second‑wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s placed abortion at the centre of its socio‑legal agenda. The slogan “the personal is political” captured how unwanted pregnancy constricted women’s opportunities in education, work, and public life. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade (1973) reconfigured abortion from a clandestine act to a legitimate public claim, prompting a global ripple of legislative reforms. Yet rights‑based approaches were soon critiqued by women of colour who noted their silence on structural inequalities. By the 1990s, the reproductive justice framework—pioneered by Black feminists—expanded the debate beyond the choice–life binary to include the right to have children, to parent in safe environments, and to live free from coercive population control. This intersectional lens underscored that abortion access is mediated by class stratification, racial discrimination, ableism, and colonial legacies, repositioning the issue within a wider matrix of social justice.
Sociological Theories of Bodily Autonomy
Feminist Political Economy
From a political‑economy perspective, control over reproduction is central to capitalist labour regimes. Socialist feminists argue that the unpaid reproductive labour of women sustains the waged economy, while state restrictions on abortion discipline women into particular roles within the labour market. Access to abortion intersects with welfare policies, childcare infrastructure, and workplace discrimination, shaping women’s economic participation and perpetuating gender wage gaps.
Symbolic Interactionism and Stigma
Symbolic‑interactionist research emphasises micro‑level encounters in clinics, hospitals, and communities where abortion stigma is produced and resisted. Women manage impressions by concealing appointments, crafting plausible alibis, or seeking solidarity through storytelling circles and online forums. These interactions reveal the ongoing social construction of deviance, illustrating that legality alone does not eradicate moral judgment.
Intersectionality and Stratified Reproduction
Intersectional theory, articulated by Kimberlé Crenshaw, asserts that gender does not operate independently of race, class, sexuality, disability, or citizenship status. In the context of abortion, intersectionality exposes stratified reproduction—where privileged groups gain reproductive autonomy while marginalised groups face surveillance, forced sterilisation, or denied services. Consequently, sociologists view abortion as a terrain where multiple structures of oppression converge and are contested.
Foucault, Biopower, and Governmentality
Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopower and governmentality illuminate how modern states regulate populations by managing birth rates and disciplining bodies. Abortion laws, parental‑consent rules, and mandatory ultrasounds function as techniques of governance that normalise certain reproductive choices and marginalise others. Feminists thus interrogate whose bodies are deemed worthy of protection and whose fertility is rendered expendable.
Bourdieusian Field Theory
Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of field permits analysis of abortion politics as a struggle over symbolic capital among medical professionals, religious leaders, feminist activists, and legislators. Competing actors wield differing forms of capital—scientific authority, moral legitimacy, or grassroots credibility—to shape public policy and opinion.
Risk Society and Reflexive Modernisation
Ulrich Beck’s concept of risk society helps explain how contemporary abortion debates revolve around managing biomedical and moral risk. Technologies such as prenatal screening and genetic testing have intensified ethical dilemmas, prompting reflexive scrutiny of scientific authority and amplifying calls for informed consent.
Methodological Approaches
- Quantitative Demography: Large‑scale surveys and vital‑registration data chart abortion incidence, revealing socioeconomic gradients in access and outcomes.
- Qualitative Ethnography: Clinic ethnographies illuminate everyday negotiations between patients, providers, and protestors, exposing the affective textures of policy.
- Comparative Historical Analysis: Cross‑national case studies track legal reforms, demonstrating how transnational movements and domestic institutions interact.
- Digital Sociology: Social‑media scraping and network analysis capture discursive shifts, hashtag activism, and the diffusion of misinformation.
