Abortion in legal, social, and healthcare contexts

Worldwide, abortion is one of the commonest gynaecological procedures (Sedgh et al., 2012). The common occurrence of abortion around the globe, however, belies considerable diversity in the social, political, and ethical meanings of terminating a pregnancy, as well as the practices surrounding abortion. All of these vary from locale to locale, from one historical time to another, and among social groups within particular times and places. In this two-part Special Issue, we present feminist scholarship that addresses some of the diverse contexts and circumstances in which abortion takes place and the psychological implications of such contexts. This issue, Feminism & Psychology, 27(1), is Part 1 of the Special Issue ‘‘Abortion in Context’’; Part 2 will appear in May 2017 as 27(2). The pieces in Part 1 explore the legal, sociocultural, and healthcare contexts of abortion. These contexts set the conditions of possibility for women who seek to terminate a pregnancy and, to some extent, for the practitioners who provide them. Part 2 will be devoted to pieces that focus on women’s experiences of abortion – for example, decision-making, stigma, and post-abortion distress – and that examine how women’s experiences are embedded in the discursive, institutional, and material contexts of their lives. Heretofore, Feminism & Psychology has contained few articles on abortion, unintended pregnancy, or contraception. The paucity of attention to abortion is in sharp contrast to the extensive attention given to heterosexual relations and (hetero)sex. Given that a substantial proportion of women are likely to terminate a pregnancy by abortion at least once during their lives, the topic of abortion merits consideration. We hope that this Special Issue serves to direct the attention of feminist psychologists to questions about abortion.