Navigating ‘Abortion Work’ Under Restrictive Law: Abortion Testimonies from Honduras and Poland
While existing literature discusses the use of counter-narratives of abortion to advance the social decriminalization of abortion (Belfrage, Didier and Vázquez 2022; Baird and Millar 2019), more work is needed to understand the testimonies made public by women in countries where abortion is essentially impossible. Therefore, we conduct a content analysis of the testimonies from Poland and Honduras. In Poland, we explore testimonies published on the website of an organization called Aborcyjny Dream Team, while in Honduras, we draw from the publication Aborto, Mi Historia, published by the coalition Somos Muchas in 2017. These testimonies offer a human perspective on the global struggle for reproductive justice, highlighting the resilience of women while also exposing the harm caused by oppressive policies.
By analyzing the affective landscapes (Ahmed 2004) of these narratives, e.g., emotions of relief, guilt, grief or empowerment, our analysis aims to unravel how women navigate their lived experiences in light of embodied social norms and expectations, their insurgent agency and restrictive law. Furthermore, we wish to explore what kind of registers of transmission these testimonies appear to offer: may it be to break the silence about abortion, to inform others about the practical process of abortion, or, for instance, to address the need for catharsis for closure or therapeutic reasons.