Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic

by Wendy Simonds

How do feminist identity and abortion politics intersect? Specifically, what does feminism mean to women working to feminist health care and abortion services in the late 1980s and early 1990s? What are the ideological consequences and emotional tolls of doing such work in a hostile socio-cultural environment? Can feminism and bureaucracy coexist productively? How do feminists confront the anti-feminist opposition, from anti-abortion protesters outside to racism within feminist organizations?

These are the questions that drive Wendy Simonds' Abortion at Work . Simonds documents the ways in which workers at a feminist clinic construct compelling feminist visions, and also watch their ideals fall short in practice. Simonds interprets these women's narratives to get at how abortion works on feminism, and to show what feminism can gain by rethinking abortion utilizing these activists' terms. In thoroughly engaging prose, Simonds frames her analysis with a moving account of her own personal understanding of the issues.

Genres: Sociology

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the abortion debate. It is written from a strong pro-choice perspective, but it really offer some insights into what abortion clinics are like. It surprised me how candid the author was – she is a huge chapter about how clinic workers dealt with the bodies of aborted babies. She freely describes clinic workers pouring through arms, legs, and other body parts to determine that all the parts have been removed from the woman so that she would not suffer an infection. Pretty powerful stuff, and powerful from a pro-life perspective – there were times when I couldn't imagine how these clinic workers could continue working there, or how they could possibly be pro-choice after what they'd seen. You would think that dealing with baby body parts would be enough to make anyone pro-life, but they were completely dedicated to the pro-choice cause and providing abortions. It was kind of hard for me to understand. But it did give some valuable insights, and a verified a lot of the things that pro-lifers say about the unborn baby. It verifies all those abortion pictures that you see of aborted babies. So for that, it's very valuable from a pro-life perspective.