The Question of Why
By rbobbitt
Abortion remains a hotly contested subject within society, and with the election looming high, the pro-choice/pro-life divide continues to provide a means of voting allocations. A recent study by the Guttmacher Institute (see article below), a nonprofit reproductive health research organization, brings a new dynamic into the abortion debate. The Institutes comprehensive examination of abortion reveals that during the past thirty years, abortion rates have dropped among teenage whites and risen among women of color in their 20’s and 30’s. This raises a question about not only who seeks abortions, but why. Patricia Hill Collin’s notion of “matrix of domination” becomes useful here, as we see that abortion is never simply a decision of wanting to be a parent or not. Instead, class, race, global location, sexuality, and age all compound the issue and affect choice. In such uncertain economic times, the affects of class and income most be taken into account as to why abortions are sought out.
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The issue of “choice” is always better understood when problematized in ways Collins’ highlights. Her matrix of domination is also revealing when applied to understanding how Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is a “private, family matter” while the “out-of-wedlock” pregnancies of young women of color have continually been pointed to as the causes of poverty, welfare dependence, etc.
I think that maximalist arguments do not help us to read the social world. I have the impression that normative (e.g. welfare type) and academic (that is mainly white, liberal, and middle class) discourses on race have helped to conceal the issue of class. That is, there is the tendency to think about ethnic minority groups as ‘poor’ or ‘working-class’. On teenagers pregnancy, there is a wonderful ethnography by Elijah Anderson (‘The Code of the Street’), in which he clearly distinguish between ‘decent’ and ‘street oriented’ families in inner city Philadelphia. There is a hopefully exhaustive summary of his chapter ‘The Mating Game’ in my blog: http://kiddingthecity.org/blog/?p=158.