Abortion in the Public Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As long as people associate abortion with images of women in their eighth month of pregnancy, those seeking to restrict women's access to abortion will win.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Abortion in the Public Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As long as people associate abortion with images of women in their eighth month of pregnancy, those seeking to restrict women's access to abortion will win.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-16T12:06:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2017\/01\/aerial-193361_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html\",\"name\":\"Abortion in the Public Imagination\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-16T12:06:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-16T12:06:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"As long as people associate abortion with images of women in their eighth month of pregnancy, those seeking to restrict women's access to abortion will win.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Abortion in the Public Imagination\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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{"id":31722,"date":"2017-01-16T08:06:42","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T12:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=31722"},"modified":"2017-01-16T08:06:42","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T12:06:42","slug":"31722","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31722.html","title":{"rendered":"Abortion in the Public Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Screen$ <\/p>\n

Have a look at the above\u00a0screenshot from\u00a0a World Magazine article<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cDo we value life as God does?\u201d the headline asks. The image shows a pregnant woman, likely in her eighth month, holding a book to her belly. My first thought, on seeing the headline and the image, was of maternity leave, of childcare costs, and of the high financial cost of prenatal care and childbirth. I thought of funding cuts for\u00a0education and for social services. What world will that child be born to? One that values life? Or not?<\/p>\n

Then I read the byline and realized that the author was talking about abortion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s absurd\u00a0that an anti-abortion writer would feel the\u00a0image of a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy would be a relevant accompanying image. It\u2019s not. The vast majority of abortions happen before a woman starts to show; even late-term abortions tend to occur during the second trimester. An image of a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy is relevant to the questions I just posed\u2014questions about childcare and medical costs and maternity leave\u2014not to abortion.<\/p>\n

I am pro-choice, but I grew up in a pro-life home and community. I ran my university\u2019s chapter of Students for Life. Things changed<\/a>. As a progressive in today\u2019s world,\u00a0the attacks on women\u2019s reproductive rights can sometimes seem overwhelming. It strikes\u00a0me that one of the biggest problems we currently face is that of framing. Consider the presidential debates this past fall. When abortion came up, it was late-term abortion, but most recent attacks on reproductive rights have threatened first trimester abortions especially.<\/p>\n

Consider that<\/a> the restrictions in Texas\u2019 HB2 targeted those Planned Parenthood clinics performing first trimester abortions especially (clinics providing late-term abortions are more likely to already meet the hospital codes the bill unnecessarily imposed on all clinics providing abortion services). Consider that Texas\u2019 HB2 imposed additional burdens on the provision of\u00a0the abortion pill,\u00a0used only for abortions\u00a0occurring in the first nine weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n

And yet, despite this, the only abortion-related presidential debate question focused on late-term abortion. This gave the Republican candidate\u00a0the opportunity\u00a0to claim that proponents of women\u2019s reproductive rights believe\u00a0\u201cyou can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb on the ninth month on the final day\u201d when this is not only untrue, but also not in the least bit relevant to the practical considerations of who actually gets abortions today, and how.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I am not a policy strategist. I don\u2019t know how we go about changing the imagery and messaging that currently defines the battle lines of this conflict. I only know that we have to do so. As long as people associate abortion with images of women in their eighth month of pregnancy, or with the ripping of fully-formed viable fetuses from the womb,\u00a0those seeking to restrict\u00a0women\u2019s access to abortion will win. We have to take back the conversation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s absurd that an anti-abortion writer would feel the image of a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy would be a relevant accompanying image. It’s not. The vast majority of abortions happen before a woman starts to show; even late-term abortions tend to occur during the second trimester. An image of a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy is relevant to things like maternity leave or childcare costs, not abortion. <\/p>\n