Revolutionary pills? Feminist abortion, pharmaceuticalization, and reproductive governance
Madeleine Belfrage
Abstract
This article was named the winner of the 2021 Enloe Award. The committee commented:This article embodies the spirit of the Enloe Award by helping us conceptualize self-medication abortion as a part of “reproductive governance,” or how multiple actors beyond the state participate in providing and facilitating reproductive health care. This framework is crucial to understanding that access to abortion pills certainly can increase bodily autonomy, illustrating the effectiveness of grassroots feminist activists in meeting the needs of those who wish to terminate pregnancies. At the same time, the manufacturing and distribution of the pills also empower a whole host of actors that promote corporatized care, neoliberal agency, and population management. The article stood out to the committee as an original and exciting feminist intervention in global conversations about abortion access, and we commend the author for the strong theoretical framework, robust methodological approach involving ethnographic research in Mexico, and provocative insights.