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Пишет Misha Verbitsky (![[info]](http://lj.rossia.org/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tiphareth) |
http://prospect.org/article/demographic
With numbers like these, why does the ’70s-era image of the white, middle-class teenager as the typical abortion patient persist? For one thing, the anti-choice movement, dominated by white evangelicals, presents it as the paradigmatic, relatable example. Georgia representative Phil Gingrey, who recently came to the defense of Todd “legitimate rape” Akin, referenced a “scared-to-death 15-year-old” when conjuring the image of a prototypical abortion patient. In comparing rape to having a baby out of wedlock, GOP Senate candidate Tom Smith cited his own daughter's choice not to abort.
While there have been some recent efforts by anti-choicers to target women of color in their marketing, they have every reason to stick to a narrative that focuses on young white women as abortion patients. For one thing, anti-choicers heavily promote adoption as the preferred alternative to abortion, so it’s in their interest to imply that most abortion patients would have otherwise produced healthy white infants ready to be snatched up by affluent couples. As the cultural standard for purity, white teenage abortion patients reinforce the idea that young women who have pre-marital sex shame themselves and their families. Women of color and poor women tend to be nastily stereotyped as sexually incontinent over-breeders (e.g., the “welfare queen”)—the media doesn’t obsess over their “purity.”
With numbers like these, why does the ’70s-era image of the white, middle-class teenager as the typical abortion patient persist? For one thing, the anti-choice movement, dominated by white evangelicals, presents it as the paradigmatic, relatable example. Georgia representative Phil Gingrey, who recently came to the defense of Todd “legitimate rape” Akin, referenced a “scared-to-death 15-year-old” when conjuring the image of a prototypical abortion patient. In comparing rape to having a baby out of wedlock, GOP Senate candidate Tom Smith cited his own daughter's choice not to abort.
While there have been some recent efforts by anti-choicers to target women of color in their marketing, they have every reason to stick to a narrative that focuses on young white women as abortion patients. For one thing, anti-choicers heavily promote adoption as the preferred alternative to abortion, so it’s in their interest to imply that most abortion patients would have otherwise produced healthy white infants ready to be snatched up by affluent couples. As the cultural standard for purity, white teenage abortion patients reinforce the idea that young women who have pre-marital sex shame themselves and their families. Women of color and poor women tend to be nastily stereotyped as sexually incontinent over-breeders (e.g., the “welfare queen”)—the media doesn’t obsess over their “purity.”
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