Recovering Women: Intimate Images and Legal Strategy
In: Social & legal studies: an international journal, Band 11, Heft 2, S. 155-183
ISSN: 1461-7390
In Canada today, there is no prohibitive regulation of abortion. Indeed, federal law seems barely cognisant of the social reality of the widespread termination of pregnancy. The absence of legal obstacles appears to remove law from the abortion debate, but, having defined its terms, I argue that law continues to operate at a constitutive level, notwithstanding its invisibility. In Canadian public consciousness, there is 'abortion on demand'. However, an examination of women's actual experiences reveals a complexity and a mismatch with social and legal discourse that feminists need to address both theoretically and practically. This article uses 15 specific stories to explore the factors preventing the realization of feminist ideals of full and equal choice for all women. An awareness of women's agency and the different ideological contexts and material inequalities under which they negotiate unplanned pregnancy, abortion and motherhood must inform feminist strategies within and beyond law, if the promise of reproductive rights is to be fulfilled universally.