Commentary on the struggle over abortion in the USA

Abstract

This short paper considers the implications of the anti-abortion movement as part of a larger historical project of male domination, domination of nature, and exploitation of labor. It emphasizes how the attempt to control the mother and her body represents both denial of dependency and the split off defense of the vulnerable self projected into the symbol of the fetus. The refusal to accept the knowledge of one’s own harming, colonial-racist exploitation, is perversely bolstered by putting the onus of harming onto the other.