Beynon-Jones, Sian Maeve orcid.org/0000-0002-6795-7101 (2017) Gestating times:Women’s accounts of the temporalities of pregnancies that end in abortion in England. Sociology of Health and Illness. pp. 832-846. ISSN 1467-9566
Abstract
Tensions between the ‘clock time’ of medicine and the embodied times of its subjects are central to feminist writing concerning Western obstetric practice. In this article, I expand the focus of this literature by addressing the temporal dynamics of another site of reproductive healthcare: abortion provision. Echoing obstetric accounts of birth, time in legal, healthcare and social scientific discourse on abortion is routinely conceptualised as a finite resource contained within the pregnant/foetal body, which can be measured using clocks and calendars. I argue that women's interview accounts of their experiences of ending their pregnancies offer opportunities for critical reflection on this characterisation of pregnancy as linear ‘gestational time’. First, participants in this study re-position the significance of gestational time by articulating its embodied meaning. Second, they provide alternative accounts of the temporality of pregnancy as a process which emerges through, and is disrupted by, the dynamics of socio-material relations. The article considers the broader implications of women's accounts of pregnancy times for legal, healthcare and social scientific accounts of ‘later’ abortion.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Author. Sociology of Health & Illness published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for SHIL. |
Keywords: | abortion,feminism,pregnancy,time,Decision Making,Women's Health,Narration,Humans,England,Pregnancy,Feminism,Time Factors,Adult,Female,Interviews as Topic,Qualitative Research,Abortion, Induced/psychology |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Sociology (York) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number WELLCOME TRUST 095720/Z/11/Z |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 06 Dec 2016 11:41 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2025 17:22 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12522 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/1467-9566.12522 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:109092 |
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Filename: Gestating_Times.pdf
Description: Gestating Times