Abortion Through a Feminist Lens Susan Sherwin

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Abortion Through a Feminist Lens Susan Sherwin

• Economic factors such as employment opportunities
  need to be addressed so that poverty does not
  force a women to have an abortion.
• Social Factors Childcare and housing.
• Healthcare pre- and post-natal care and
  nutrition.

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Relational Conception of Personhood.

• Fetal development occurs within the context of a
  womans body.
• The very existence of the fetus is relational,
  the fetus cannot be said to have any independent
  existence.
• The concept of personhood is a social category.
• Persons. . . are members of a social community
  which shapes and values them, and personhood is a
  relational concept that must be defined in terms
  of interaction and relationships with
  others.(443)

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Implication of Sherwins View

• The responsibility and privilege of determining
  its specific social status and value must rest
  with the woman carrying it. Fetuses are not
  persons because they have not developed
  sufficiently in social relationships to be
  persons in any morally significant sense

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Feminist Politics and Abortion

• Questions surrounding abortion cannot be
  separated from the social and political
  oppression of women.
• Access to abortions is an essential element in
  womens pursuit of social equality.
• Provincial governments have a moral and political
  obligation to insure the all women in all regions
  have access to abortion.

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Nurturing environments should be fostered for
those seeking abortions.

• The context in which abortions take place is also
  important.
• Feminists are concerned with both wanted and
  unwanted fetuss.
• Economic factors such as employment opportunities
  need to be addressed so that poverty does not
  force a women to have an abortion.
• Social Factors Childcare and housing.
• Healthcare pre- and post-natal care and
  nutrition.