Responding to the Hyde Amendment: Abortion Discourse, Race, and a Conspiracy of Silence
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Date
2018
Authors
Wilms-Crowe, Momo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This research project examines the discourse about abortion and reproductive justice
in order to analyze how race shaped politics within the second-wave feminist
movement. Specifically, I explore why more black women did not engage in the
national debate about abortion in the wake of the 1976 Hyde Amendment, even when
restrictive abortion legislation had a disproportionately negative effect on them.
Historically, scholarship has focused either on women’s liberation and feminism, or on
civil rights and black liberation. This paper, however, connects those themes using an
intersectional approach by examining reproductive justice in terms of women’s
multiple, intersecting identities, especially race, class, and gender. This
multidimensional identity complicated black women’s involvement in the second wave
feminist movement, leading to a so-called “conspiracy of silence.” Primary sources,
including feminist publications, interviews, and autobiographies reveal that black
women were largely absent from the mainstream pro-choice feminist discourse and
mobilizations in the 1970s. Their silence and lack of involvement, however, was not
because access to abortion was unimportant nor irrelevant to them. Rather, my
research suggests that their silence was rooted in complex historical and ideological
barriers as well as a failure of the mainstream feminist movement to consider their
unique history, needs, and circumstances. This research project draws attention to the
historical silences by reading “against the grain” with the aim to shed light on the
complicated politics within the second-wave feminist movement and provide a
framework for understanding why black women’s voices were silenced in this sphere.
Description
17 pages
Keywords
Abortion, Reproductive justice, Hyde Amendment, Intersectionality, Racial inequality, Women of color, Black feminism, Systemic racism, Socioeconomic inequality, Women's health, Reproductive rights, Black women, White privilege, Pro-choice feminist movement, Health policy
Citation
Wilms-Crowe, M. (2018). Responding to the Hyde Amendment: Abortion Discourse, Race, and a Conspiracy of Silence. Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal, 13(1). doi:10.5399/uo/ourj.13.1.4