Article

Affilia: Journal of Women and Social

Work

Challenging Dominant 2015, Vol. 30(1) 83-95

ª The Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permission:
Discourses on Abortion From sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0886109914549232
a Radical Feminist Standpoint aff.sagepub.com

Indira Gilbert1 and Vishanthie Sewpaul1

Abstract
The article, which is based on the narratives of 15 women in the Durban metropolitan area, contests
liberal feminist views of abortion resting on the free choice of women. Adopting a radical feminist
standpoint, it locates the abortion decision within structural constraints on women’s lives, raising
the relationship between socioeconomic freedom and women’s reproductive health choices. The
article also contests the popular pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy, interrogates the influence of
popular pronatalism and discourses on motherhood on women’s choices, and highlights feminist
relational ethical thinking that underscores women’s choices even as they acknowledge principled
ethical concerns around the sanctity of life.

Keywords
feminist theories and research, narrative discourse, poverty, qualitative, reproductive rights

Introduction
Human rights, ethical, and social justice considerations, which are at the heart of the abortion debate,
are of central concern to social workers. The proposed new global definition of social work (Inter-
national Association of Schools of Social Work [IASSW]/International Federation of Social Work-
ers [IFSW], 2014) reiterates that the pursuit of social justice and human rights grants social work its
legitimacy. In abortion rests the fundamental questions of life and death, the meaning of personhood,
and when life begins that elicit moralizing stances, with an apparent inability to bring together
opposing pro-life and pro-choice views. This article, which is based on an in-depth study of the nar-
ratives of 15 women, contests the liberal feminist view of abortion resting on the free choice of
women. Adopting a radical feminist standpoint, it locates the abortion decision within the structural
constraints on women’s lives, raising the relationship between socioeconomic freedom and women’s
reproductive health choices. The article also contests the popular pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy,
interrogates the influence of popular pronatalism and discourses on motherhood on women’s

1
School of Applied Human Sciences, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa

Corresponding Author:
Indira Gilbert, School of Applied Human Sciences, University of KwaZulu Natal, Howard College Campus, Durban 4041,
South Africa.
Email: indira.gilbert@gmail.com

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84 Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 30(1)

choices, and argues that contextual morality (Tronto, 1993, p. 27), underscored by the feminist
relational ethic of care, frames women’s moral reasoning in abortion decision making, even as they
acknowledge principled ethical concerns about violating the sanctity of life.

Context of the Study

This research was conducted in the Durban metropolitan area in the province of KwaZulu-Natal
(KZN), South Africa. KZN has the largest population in South Africa with approximately 11 million
from the country’s 50 million people of black, Asian, colored and white descent (South Africa Year-
book, 2010/2011). The Durban metropolitan area, 1 of the 11 municipalities in KZN, has a cosmo-
politan population of over 3 million people, with the majority being African black and isiZulu
speaking. Since the legalizing of abortion in South Africa, approximately 650,000 legal abortions
were performed between 1997 and 2007, with 90,000 in KZN. In 2012, there were 85,302 reported
abortions in South Africa (Johnston, 2013).
In 1997, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act No. 92 of 1996 was promulgated. This Act,
which allows South African women access to abortion on demand up to 12 weeks of pregnancy; on
the recommendation of a medical practitioner from 13 to 20 weeks; and on the recommendation of
two medical practitioners beyond 20 weeks, was welcomed by pro-choice groups but raised strong
opposition from pro-life groups. An exceptionally contentious aspect of the Act is that it allows chil-
dren from 12 years of age to secure an abortion without parental consent. South Africa’s pro-choice
abortion law does not reflect the majority views of its population who are largely pro-life (Human
Sciences Research Council [HSRC], 2004).

Literature Review
Abortion raises controversial ethical questions, often linked to religious and cultural beliefs, which
influence attitudes toward and decisions about abortion (Adamczyk, 2009; Jelen & Wilcox, 2003).
The influence of religion is not absolute; individual values and situational factors mediate the influ-
ence of religion on moral decision making. As the major world religions view abortion as murder,
women who choose abortions might experience guilt, shame, self-hatred, and fear of God (Try-
bulski, 2005; Vukelić, Kapamadzija, & Kondić, 2010). Religious views are generally informed
by the Kantian categorical imperative (CI), based on deontological or duty-based ethics that presume
an eminently autonomous, rational being. The distinguishing feature of the CI is that moral worth is
judged by the rightness or wrongness of an act itself. The maxim of this imperative is that when one
makes a particular choice, one should will that it become the universal law (Beauchamp, 1991). It is
based on principles that are universalizable and committed to an abstract impartiality, where partic-
ular circumstances, outcomes, and relationships bear no relevance to the ethical decision making
(Tronto, 1993). In contrast to this, is contextual morality linked with the feminist relational ethic
of care, with attentiveness, responsibility for others, competence, and responsiveness, being its core
elements (Tronto, 1993)?
Contextual morality is not only women’s prerogative. The relegation of discourses on care to the
private and domestic sphere has disadvantaged women. It is important that the political and public
dimensions of care are recognized and that they are appreciated as issues of concern by both women
and men. Morality reflects individual principles of right and wrong, which are codified into formal
sets of ethical principles. While ethical codes and principles establish what one ought to do in a given
situation, in reality these are not always consistent. While one code may condemn, another might
valorize the same act. There are often double standards, with explicitly stated public, official sys-
tems of ethics and covert, personal morality. Many moral questions are fraught with ambiguity, and
doing one’s duty by following the rules, at times, produces more harm than good (Bauman, 1993).

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Gilbert and Sewpaul 85

Women’s decision to abort cannot be considered in isolation from their contextual realities. Saul
(2003) posited that women’s right to choose does not negate the impact of the moral dimension.
Women struggle with numerous competing values and life exigencies as they make the abortion
decision. While radical feminism focuses on the structural constraints on women, it does not deny
individual agency. As moral agents, women do exercise responsibility and power, and they seek to
make decisions in their interests and in the interests of others (Tronto, 1993). When women expe-
rience dire financial circumstance and do not have the support of partner, family, and friends, they
are more likely to opt for abortion (Williams & Shames, 2004). The severity of domestic violence
also was found to have increased the chances of women seeking abortion (Kaye, Mirembe, Bante-
bya, Johansson, & Ekstrom, 2006). Physical abuse may contribute to coercion into the abortion deci-
sion, with coercion taking the forms of pressure, emotional blackmail, threats, and/or violence by
persons of influence (Reardon, 2002).
Older women who have completed their childbearing might choose abortion, as they do not want
their children to suffer material and emotional deprivation (Finer, Frohwirth, Dauphinee, Singh, &
Moore, 2005). Where partners deny paternity, women may choose to abort to protect children from
growing up fatherless, among other personal reasons (Finer, et al., 2005; Jones, Frohwirth, & Moore,
2007). Some women who abort compare themselves with the dominant constructs of ideal mother-
hood and decide that they do not want to be inadequate mothers. Thus, Jones, Frohwirth, and Moore
(2007) concluded that abortion could be considered an act of responsibility. There are, however,
arguments that abortion for socioeconomic reasons serves the narrow interests of women (Hilton,
2007). The results of this study, which was designed, as described subsequently, to understand the
experiences of women who opted for abortion, dispute this argument.

Research Design and Methodology

The study adopted a qualitative, interpretivist paradigm (Cohen & Manion, 1994; Creswell, 2012)
and a feminist research design, which is committed to understanding the experiences of women and
gendered power relationships and discourses in a predominantly patriarchal society (Mappes &
Zembaty, 1997). Fifteen conversational style in-depth interviews of over an hour duration each and
follow-up telephone interviews, when necessary, were conducted with the aid of a loosely formu-
lated interview guide. The following key questions framed the study: How do the current contextual
realities affect abortion decision making? What role does religious beliefs and cultural values play in
the decision? How is right and wrong negotiated within the context of religious and cultural expec-
tations? What support systems/structures are available? What is the potential impact of dominant
discourses of motherhood and fatherhood on the abortion decision and on the consequences of abor-
tion? Interviews were arranged per the convenience of the participants at venues chosen by them.
Participants were accessed via convenience sampling at an abortion clinic and a public hospital, with
entry facilitated by the health professionals. The women had access to these facilities on a nonfee-
paying basis.
The interviews were audio recorded with permission from the participants and transcribed verba-
tim, thus allowing for rich presentation of textual data in the analysis. Critical discourse analysis
(CDA), which focuses on social structures and the use of language (Fairclough, 2009) to describe
how existing structures impact the lives of women, was used in the analysis and discussion of the
data. In Fairclough’s (2009) dialectical–relational approach to CDA, the focus is on the analysis
of structures and context in addition to language. While textual analysis is important, it is only a part
of the discourse analysis. The emphasis is on how the language action is framed within a broader
social order (Fairclough, 2009). Wodak and Meyer (2009) highlight language as an activity
and social practice. An oral utterance is embedded in a discourse and regarded as ‘‘a manifestation
of social action which again is widely determined by social structure’’ (Wodak & Meyer, 2009, p. 6).

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86 Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 30(1)

All ethical considerations, with particular emphasis on doing no harm, maintaining confidential-
ity, beneficence, anonymity in the reporting of data through the use of pseudonyms and ensuring that
the women cannot be identified by others in the analysis, obtaining written informed consent, and
ensuring that psychosocial support was provided, when necessary, were adhered to. Permission was
granted from the management of both service centers and ethical approval was granted from the
University of KwaZulu Natal Research Ethics Committee. The data were coded, categorized and
built into major themes, and informed by qualitative, interpretivist research and CDA critically
engaged with and interpreted. Thus, the thick description of the data, in the voices of the women,
and the analysis are presented as an integrated whole, rather than separately. In a nutshell, the demo-
graphics showed that 11 of the women were in the 21- to 30-year age-group, 3 were below 20 years
of age, and 1 was over 30; 13 were single and 2 were cohabiting. There were nine women of African
black descent, three of Indian descent, and three of white descent. The majority identified them-
selves as Christian, two of the Indians as Hindu, and one as having no religious affiliation. Six of
the women were students, six were unemployed, and three were employed. Five of the women had
existing children, that is, three had one child each, one had two children, and one had three children.
The data were analyzed in relation to the following researcher constructed themes, based on the nar-
ratives of the women and on literature: (1) structural constraints on women’s lives, (2) challenges to
the pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy, (3) the motherhood mandate and popular pronatalism, and (4) the
influence of feminist relational ethics on the abortion decision.

Structural Constraints on Women’s Lives

One of the recurring themes in the narratives of the women was financial hardship combined, in
some cases, with abandonment by their partners on learning about their pregnancies. Williams and
Shames (2004) found that financial constraints, and women’s concerns about their inability to pro-
vide adequately for the child, were major push factors toward abortion. With pregnancy, childbirth,
and child care constructed as women’s responsibilities (Doucet, 2000; Sewpaul, 1999), many men in
South Africa abandon their partners during pregnancy (Richter & Morrell, 2006). Zanele’s story rep-
resents the experiences of other women in this regard:

When I found out that I was pregnant I called my boyfriend and told him about it. He didn’t like it. He
said that he didn’t want anything to do with it. I said what I am supposed to do. He said that he doesn’t
know. We never spoke since the day. He never came to me. Even to today. He does not know I did this. I
don’t want to see him no more.

Zanele’s partner asserted that ‘‘he didn’t want anything to do with it’’ and that ‘‘he doesn’t know,’’
thus placing the responsibility for the pregnancy on Zanele who was unemployed and poor. This is a
discourse that privileges men into abandoning their partners and evading responsibility, leaving
women to cope on their own. Women have internalized this and have come to accept responsibility
for becoming pregnant, for making the abortion decision, and for coping with its consequences.
Zanele’s feelings of hurt and disappointment were palpable as she described shifting from a position
of having a boyfriend that she thought cared for her to being abandoned to the point of ‘‘we never
spoke since the day.’’ Men assume that it is up to women to decide what to do with pregnancies and
the birth and care of children. In Umlazi, south of Durban, it was reported that only 7,000 of the
67,000 men ordered to pay maintenance toward the care of their children in 2002, complied
(Richter & Morrell, 2006). Men do not only refuse to pay maintenance but sometimes refuse to
acknowledge the existence of their children.
In South Africa, female-headed households are a common feature. Women form the largest
(60%) proportion of the unemployed in the country (Trading Economics, 2012). South Africa has

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Gilbert and Sewpaul 87

an unemployment rate of about 25% (Statistics South Africa, 2012), which is among the highest in
the world (Kingdom & Knight, 2004). When discouraged work seekers are included, this percentage
expands to 36 (Vavi, 2012). Even those who complete formal schooling are unable to secure
employment, as seen in the case of Phindile who stated, ‘‘I came to Durban with my son to find
employment. Even though I have my matric (a secondary school exit level qualification) I cannot
find employment.’’ Phindile did a further postmatric course in the hope of obtaining a better paying
job. Unskilled and semiskilled women generally hold lower paid jobs compared to men, and even
though women are employed, they suffer financial hardship. With the increasing cost of living in
South Africa and limited work opportunities, women who are dependent only on the Child Support
Grant (CSG; which is currently about US$30 per month for children up to 18 years of age) and the
working poor women experience extreme difficulty in making ends meet. Five of the nine African
black participants, in this study who had children, were in receipt of a CSG which was their primary
means of support. A CSG, which is inadequate for a month’s rent on accommodation, will enable
purchase of about 15 liters of milk and 12 loaves of bread in South Africa. Under circumstances
of dire need, abortion becomes a viable option for many women (Jones et al., 2007; Williams &
Shames, 2004). Mphilo, who was dependent on the CSG, said, ‘‘I receive Child Support grants. . . .
how am I gonna manage? It’s too hard to bring another child when you do not have enough support
for her or for him.’’
Unemployment, poverty, child neglect, and child abandonment are often linked. Some of the
women in this study reasoned that it was more ethical to abort than continue the pregnancy and aban-
don the baby, which has become a feature in South Africa. In 2011, there were 2,583 abandoned
babies, an increase of 36% from 2010 (Chaykowski, 2012). Abandoned babies are left alone, gen-
erally on roadsides, in public toilets, or bushes, primarily on account of unemployment, poverty,
abandonment by partners, and/or HIV/AIDS. Women who experienced difficulty in providing for
their existing children did not wish to repeat this, and they did not want their children to suffer even
more deprivation. It is an irony that amid the dominant discourse of men as providers and protectors,
men abandon their partners and children and do not pay for child support (Richter & Morrell, 2006),
and that women are left to literally carry the baby. Yet women are the ones, not the men, who are
demonized for the pro-abortion choices that they are often forced to make.
The country’s unemployment reflects its racial history and demographics, where the lower
income mainly black women are affected, particularly under conditions of capitalist trade liberal-
ization (Bond, 2005; Sewpaul, 2013a; Trading Economics, 2012). Education is stratified as in all
developing countries (Buchmann & Hannum, 2001), which makes it difficult for the lower socio-
economic groups to secure decent and gainful employment. Some of the women in this study were
struggling against the odds to obtain education, which they rightfully saw as an exit from the cycle
of poverty and a means toward a better future. A premature and unplanned pregnancy would have
negatively impacted their aspirations. Phindile stated, ‘‘I am studying. It will hinder my present
plans for making a future for myself and my son.’’ Contextual moral reasoning framed the deci-
sions of the participants as they considered their future and that of their present/future families.
When women are supported to contribute to their care and those of their children, they are able
to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Enhancing women’s access to education, eco-
nomic opportunities, health, and creating cultural spaces that respects women and men equally
reduces fertility rates, child mortality, and intergenerational poverty and may reduce the abortion
rate. Advancing the well-being of people and minimizing gender inequality do contribute to
broader social–economic and political development (Klasen, 2002; Sen, 2005). Participants
expressed the view that they wanted to have children under conditions that were more conducive
to caring for a baby.
Family and partner violence, as a structural constraint, is also a predictor of abortion (Kaye et al.,
2006; Whitehead & Fanslow, 2005). The internalized, patriarchal values of society contribute to

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88 Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 30(1)

men treating women as inferior and as property that they have ownership of (Dickerson, 2013). This
was evident in the case of Zama:

He was emotionally abusive. He used to say ‘you listen—you are a woman, you must know your place.
When I am talking you must shut-up.’ If a person is making you feel inferior then how can you share
something with a person like that? So that’s one thing that put me off about him—he doesn’t want
me to speak my mind. If I don’t like something I can’t say it because he’s gonna tell me he’s the man,
I must listen to him so I don’t have to say anything. If he says this or that, it is what he says or nothing at
all. Sort of like controlling so I decided to get rid of him. So as soon as I got rid of the baby I got rid of
him. So the relationship with him also affected my decision to abort.

The gendered power imbalances are clear in the above, where Zama was expected to be passive and
complaint. But Zama indicated that she did not wish to submit to a controlling partner; she took control
of her life. Making a decision to abort was, for her a manifestation of her strength and agency, reflected
in the power of her words, ‘‘as soon as I got rid of the baby I got rid of him.’’ Afika’s narrative spoke of
substance abuse and domestic violence that contributed to her decision to abort. She said:

My dad drinks a lot. He usually says if one of us girls gets pregnant, he’ll kill them or throw them away
from home. When I thought of those things I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t keep my baby. And I thought of
my mum. She would suffer for my consequences. While I was growing up my father used to hit me and
my mum. I just couldn’t, just couldn’t allow that.

Women who had painful experiences with their previous or current partners feared a repeat of the
experience (Jones et al., 2007). Phindile, for example, stated, ‘‘I have an 8-year-old son whose father
abandoned both of us when the baby was born. I was left to be both a mother and father to the child. I
have an unstable relationship with my partner. He visits me whenever he chooses to. He is never
there when I need him for anything.’’ Phindile played a dual parental role, which became very
demanding. Zama’s past relationship also impacted her decision. She stated, ‘‘When I see my child
I remember what I went through with the father. I didn’t want this again.’’ Although Anita was in a
stable relationship, she was afraid of the possibility of being abandoned yet again, proffering this to
be one of the major factors in her abortion decision. Anita said:

I was previously married. My husband was having an affair. We separated after our first child. We later
reconciled and had our second child. He did the same again and we got divorced. I had to go through so
much. I cannot imagine what my children went through. I don’t want to bring a child into this world now
not being married and not having that grounding for three children because if he decides that he wants to
leave one day and walk out what happens to me and the child?

Pro-choice advocates generally adopt a liberal feminist perspective, emphasizing women’s freedom
of choice (Smith, 2005). From a liberal feminist pro-choice stance, women are seen as having a total
control of their bodies and autonomy in decision making. It does not consider how women’s choices
might be affected by structural factors. The narratives of the women speak to the fact that the women
did not choose abortions simply because they had a right to such choice. There were dire life circum-
stances that pushed them into making the decision, thus rendering their choice a constrained one, a
finding that also brings into question the pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy as discussed subsequently.

Challenges to the Pro-life/Pro-choice Dichotomy

Debates around abortion generally center on the pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy. With all the major
religions promoting life and valorizing childbirth and children, South Africans generally adopt a

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Gilbert and Sewpaul 89

pronatalistic view (Sewpaul, 1999). It is this pronatalism and the value of the sanctity of life that
underscores the pro-life position (Smith, 2005). The majority of South Africans do not approve
of abortion on demand, and a very small minority is in favor of abortion under particular circum-
stances (HSRC, 2004). There is a presumption that if one is pro-life, one cannot or will not make
a pro-abortion decision. The results of this study challenge this view. While it may seem a paradox,
all of the women expressed decidedly pro-life views, even as they chose abortion. None of the
women spoke of the unborn in objectified pro-choice language of ‘‘the fetus.’’ They talked about
the unborn in endearing and humanizing terms like ‘‘my baby’’ or ‘‘my child,’’ and during the course
of the interviews, the women cumulatively made 45 references to the unborn as ‘‘baby.’’ Anita
talked about bonding with the baby that you don’t even know, you don’t ever see.
The women’s pro-life stances could be seen by them taking on the dominant pro-life discourses
about those who opt for abortion being sinners and murderers. Afika said, ‘‘I know that I have killed
an innocent child,’’ while Zama claimed ‘‘there is no difference between me and a murderer.’’ Anne
adds to the chorus of women’s self-imposed judgments and conscience with, ‘‘I think that I am a
murderer—that’s what I’m thinking.’’ The paradox of being pro-life while opting to abort made the
abortion decision more difficult as the women had to bear the burden of guilt and responsibility for
taking a life.
Some of the women humanized the unborn to the extent that they wanted to fulfill cultural rituals
to appease the ancestors and allow the spirit of the unborn to rest in peace. Zama equated the loss of
the unborn to that of family members. She said:

In our Zulu culture, when you lose a baby, when you lose your mother, when you lose your spouse, you
know you need to go for a cleansing ceremony. . . . whether you are only 3 weeks pregnant or 6 weeks
pregnant at the end of the day that was gonna be a human being and a part of your family. So you need to
go for a cleansing . . . it depends on how strong the ancestors are. And it’s worse if it’s from the father’s
side. If the father’s side has very strong ancestors then the effect is very . . . it’s very powerful.

While Mphilo stated that:

In our culture we are not allowed to do this. And when we do this, we believe that it’s a person at the end
of the day. It grows up. When it grows up it will come back—need something to buy like clothes for him
for her, and a name . . . maybe after 5 years when she or he’d grow, come back to me on a dream and say
‘my mother I want my name—I don’t know my name, my mother I’m not wearing anything’. Then I’m
gonna tell them (my parents) that no one was there and I got to do these things.

Pro-choice arguments generally lie within liberal feminism, which adopts a rights-based approach
(Enns, 2010) but within existing sociopolitical and cultural orders. It ignores fundamental aspects
of power imbalances and the multiple social influences on the individual. To this end, women are
not seen in the context of their social milieu, and how they affect, and are affected by those around
them when making the abortion decision. One cannot negate the importance of liberalism in the
abortion debate. Liberal feminism successfully gained a range of rights for women. The abortion
discourse, however, goes beyond a rights-based approach as borne out in this study. Abortion is
linked to issues regarding patriarchy, systems of oppression, and structural conditions that push
women to opt for abortion. Radical feminism views the oppression of women as the most basic form
of societal oppression, which is evident in all races, cultures, and socioeconomic groupings. Radical
feminism challenges the patriarchal division of society along gender lines, which privileges men
while oppressing women (Dickerson, 2013; Dominelli, 2012; Sewpaul, 2013b). Male supremacy,
in itself, is considered a systemic form of domination. It involves more than poor male attitudes
toward women, as dominance and superiority are institutionalized with existing political and social

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90 Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 30(1)

organizations promoting patriarchy. This makes radical feminists skeptical of political action within
existing systems. Their demands are that patriarchy be defied at every level of society for meaning-
ful changes to occur in the interests of women.
The results of this study indicate that while women do make the choice to abort, the choices are,
more often than not, constrained ones in response to structural factors such as unemployment and
poverty; partner rejection and abandonment; and the fear, stigma, and shame of being pregnant and
unmarried. From a radical feminist perspective, having to choose abortion is an indictment on soci-
ety, and it highlights the relationship between the personal and political dimensions of women’s
lives. While women have a right to safe and legal reproductive health choices, including abortion,
it is up to society to ensure that societal conditions support women’s choices. Structural oppressions
and limitations, which force women into decisions that may go against their moral impulse, must be
confronted, challenged, and eliminated. If pronatalism and pro-choice are the preferred options as
reflected in popular daily discourse, especially those of religious doctrines, then societal discourse
around pregnancy and childbirth within the institution of marriage will have to be challenged and
de-constructed so that women, who become pregnant outside of marriage, do not opt for abortion
out of fear and shame.

The Motherhood Mandate and Popular Pronatalism

The norms and values of the family, the community, and society influence one’s personal decisions
(Ekstrand, Tydén, Darj, & Larsson, 2009). Popular pronatalism contributes to motherhood being
revered and rarefied (Sewpaul, 1999) but only within designated circumstances—at the right age,
and in an increasingly consumerist society at the right time, and within the context of marriage.
Thus, when pregnancy occurs outside of these ideal circumstances, secrecy is maintained (Engel-
brecht, 2005). Pronatalism and the motherhood mandate, where every woman is supposed to want
to be a mother (Gillespie, 2003; Sewpaul, 1999) irrespective of her life circumstances, contribute to
guilt and an internalization of society’s judgments about one’s moral badness when a proabortion
choice is made (Engelbrecht, 2005). Yet, at the same time, there is an overwhelming sense of shame
on account of the stigma attached to out-of-wedlock pregnancies that push women into the abortion
decision. Thus, women are placed in a double bind demonized for becoming pregnant out of wed-
lock and for making the decision to abort. Shame, guilt, and fear of family and societal reactions
often contribute to women not disclosing both the pregnancy and the subsequent abortion.
Social standing in the community affects individual family member’s behavior and choices. Fam-
ilies, concerned about their own reputation, are less accepting of their daughters’ out-of-wedlock
pregnancies, as reflected by Nerissa who said, ‘‘My family’s name is important to them. A pregnancy
and a baby while I am unmarried will let them down.’’ Vani’s parents coerced her into having an
abortion, ‘‘My dad was very angry when my mother told him that I was pregnant. He just insisted
that I have the abortion.’’ Abortion was used to protect the status and reputation of the family in
the community where issues are gossiped about, preventing women from seeking assistance and sup-
port from local structures. Both out-of-wedlock pregnancies and abortion carry stigma and constitute
sources of gossip. Gossip stems from and leads to further stigma as was observed by Stembile, ‘‘In
communities like back home people would start looking at you differently and start giving you dif-
ferent names. Labeling you and stuff like that—so it is not really easy being in a Zulu culture and
having a person saying that I had an abortion.’’
While Stembile linked her experience to the Zulu culture, such stigma permeates the various
racial, ethnic, and language groups in South Africa. Participants were reluctant to disclose the abor-
tion, as they did not want to be judged. Zama maintained, ‘‘If I have to go to a support group I will
go. But I don’t want to go to where there are people I know—people who are gonna judge me. I’d
rather go to people who are strangers where I can be free—not a person that’s gonna tell me 4 or 5

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Gilbert and Sewpaul 91

years from that time ‘hey you killed your baby.’’’ What other people knew and thought about them
was important. Zentle said, ‘‘you can talk to them now but then in the future one mistake you do they
tell you about all the bad things you’ve done.’’ The dominant societal discourse in South Africa is
that children are a blessing but within the context of marriage. Children born out of wedlock are
referred to as ‘‘illegitimate,’’ often described by the derogatory term ‘‘bastards’’ (Merriam-
Webster Online, 2013). Participants, in this study, did not reveal the pregnancy or abortion to anyone
except to the partner where they were still in a relationship, and they did not share their postabortion
experiences with anyone. It is inimical that while children are celebrated, there is enormous stigma
attached to pregnancy out of wedlock. The dominant discourses on what constitutes the ideal (gen-
erally conceptualized as the Western nuclear, two-parent family) needs to be challenged, decon-
structed, and reconstructed to allow every child born to be a wanted, loved child.

The Influence of Feminist Relational Ethics on the Abortion Decision

The narratives spoke of the women’s acute awareness of the responsibilities of motherhood and the
responsibilities that they had toward children and other significant people in their lives. On the basis
of contextual morality, women make decisions informed by an ethic of care and responsibility
toward others, including the unborn (Cannold, 1998; Finer et al, 2005; Jones et al., 2007), which was
evident with participants. Mphilo stated that, ‘‘Being a mother means many things . . . it is a big step
because it is too hard to be a mother especially a single mother because all the responsibility it’s for
you, your own. We have to do everything for the children, even if sick, or hungry, for clothes, school.
I go and see to the school. It is also financial.’’ Mphilo was solely dependent on a CSG and could not
provide for her children’s needs. Zanele too experienced motherhood as being hard. She said:

Sometimes, I enjoy being a mother—not always—because it is hard. I am not working and it is hard to
provide for them. It’s good to have children, playing with them, hugging them, seeing them run around. It
is not good when they come to you and say ‘‘mummy, I’m hungry’’ and you don’t know what to give
them. I know that I am not a good mother because I am not educated, and I do not have a good job. Being
a good mother means having a good job, getting a good salary, taking good care of them, when they need
something you are there for them. I think that being a mother takes a lot of your time.

Zanele was dependent on a CSG and her inability to provide food of her children caused anguish.
She judged herself against the standard of a ‘‘good mother’’ who has an education, a good job, a
good salary, and provides for her children. Women internalize societal oppression (Freire, 1970,
1973) and fail to see how external structural constraints impose limitations on access to resources
and on the mothering role. Women believe that they have to be everything to their children, even
when they are denied education, gainful employment, and the support of their partners. The parti-
cipants shouldered the responsibility of caring for children and blamed themselves for not being able
to adequately provide for their children. Sen (1999, pp. xi–xii) cogently draws attention to the rela-
tionship between freedom and responsibility, arguing that, ‘‘the freedom of agency that we indivi-
dually have is inescapably qualified and constrained by the social, political and economic
opportunities that are available to us.’’ If women have to fulfill their responsibilities in feeding,
clothing, educating, and providing adequate health care for their children, they need the economic
freedom to do so. The awareness of the complexities and demands of motherhood influenced parti-
cipants’ decision making, as voiced by Cheryl, ‘‘Being a mother means that I will have to place the
child’s needs first. He will be dependent on me for everything. I cannot be a mother right now. I
complete my degree in a year and want to finish it.’’ Those who were studying wished to complete
their studies in order to secure good jobs and provide a good life for their future families. This mes-
sage was reiterated by Stembile who said, ‘‘I had to choose between having a standstill in life

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92 Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 30(1)

looking after a baby or focusing on working on something that will in future help me and the babies I
would have in future.’’ The findings of this study are consistent with that of Jones et al. (2007) who
concluded that women chose abortion on account of their desire to be good mothers.
Women also did not wish to go through the process of developing a strong emotional bond with
the unborn during the pregnancy to give the baby up for adoption. Mphilo stated that with a full-term
pregnancy, one would develop an emotional attachment with the baby and that it would be traumatic
to give up the child, ‘‘You can’t have a baby to give to someone (became emotional). It’s too hard to
part with your child—to have the pain. So, so . . . it’s too hard. So I decided to do the abortion.’’
Mphilo experienced pain just pondering the thought of having a baby and giving the baby up for
adoption.
Women are considered primary childminders, and physical and emotional demands are placed on
them even where they hold outside jobs. The historic view of women being the primary house mind-
ers (Doucet, 2000) has not changed sufficiently to accommodate women who hold outside jobs.
Women therefore, over and above work responsibilities, assume a large portion of domestic respon-
sibility, which remain unrecognized and unpaid, which is a major concern for radical feminists
(Enns, 2010). The stress and difficulty of coping with multiple responsibilities contribute to the
abortion decision, as expressed by Natalie who was employed, ‘‘My baby is 10 months old. I fell
pregnant too soon. Both my partner and I decided on the abortion because there was really no option
of having the baby. We didn’t want to do it but we both know that we had to.’’
Women who are HIV positive may choose not to have another child for fear of HIV transmission
to the child, their own demise, and having to leave an orphan, or that they might become too sick
during the pregnancy. This was Ruth’s concern, ‘‘I hear so many stories if you are positive. Some-
times your baby might be positive. That is why I had the abortion.’’ Ruth’s main concern was that of
her unborn, as she did not want to risk her baby contracting HIV.

Conclusion
Radical feminism has contributed to social work’s understanding of the structural dimensions of
women’s lives, and how dominant religious and cultural constructions of motherhood, pregnancy,
and marriage have contributed to women’s reproductive health decisions. While participants consid-
ered their pro-life, religious and cultural values in making the abortion decision, their immediate life
circumstances and needs, and the needs of others around them took precedence. The primary factors
contributing to the abortion decision among participants in this study were financial constraints;
unemployment; abandonment by partners; and fear and shame in view of familial, religious, and cul-
tural sanctions against pregnancy outside of marriage.
The women held life to be sacrosanct, saw the unborn as babies, and in making the choice for
abortion acted contrary to their own moral impulse. As they internalized dominant pro-life dis-
courses, all of them constructed their choices as bad, sinful, and murderous, and in doing so saw
themselves as immoral sinners and murderers. Contextual morality rooted in the feminist ethic of
care (Tronto, 1993), however, superseded their principled moral reasoning about the wrongfulness
of the abortion act. The women allowed concerns about provision for the unborn child, their respon-
sibility toward existing children, and the need to protect their families to take precedence over the
pain, suffering, and guilt that the abortion decision brought. The structural conditions that disadvan-
tage women and the dominant societal discourses, that uphold pronatalism but only within certain
defined situations, as discussed in this article, reflect an indictment on society. If reproductive health
choices, including abortion, have to be freely, safely, and legally available to women, women must
be granted the socioeconomic freedom and cultural spaces to exercise such choices.
Stemming the incidence of abortions depends on society’s ability to provide structural and cul-
tural conditions conducive enough to render women’s choices to be truly free. Expanding freedom

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Gilbert and Sewpaul 93

and choice and reducing poverty mean prioritizing access to education and gainful employment and
the introduction of a basic income grant, which social workers have been actively advocating for in
South Africa (Sewpaul, 2005; Triegaardt, 2008). Social work educators, researchers, and practi-
tioners have important roles to play in advocating for structural changes and in lobbying for policies
that allow women expanded freedom and choice. They must also engage policy makers, students,
colleagues, and the community at large, in challenging gender inequality and the taken-for-
granted assumptions about gender roles (Sewpaul, 2013b) that place an inordinate responsibility
on women for childbearing and child rearing, and in getting men to embrace the ethic of care and
responsibilities of fatherhood.
Adopting Freirian–Gramscian strategies (Freire, 1970, 1973; Gramsci, 1971), social workers
can engage people in consciousness raising exercises, use popular media to heighten awareness,
and they can challenge and mobilize communities to confront the double standards of a society
that revere motherhood and children but condemns women for becoming pregnant in less than
socially determined ideal circumstances and more importantly challenge societies that ostracize
and label children as ‘‘unwanted bastards.’’ The most felicitous start to life, after all, is being born
a wanted and loved child.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Author Biographies
Indira Gilbert is a PhD graduate of the University of KwaZulu Natal, School of Applied Human Sciences
(Social Work) and is employed as a social worker in a special needs school in Durban. She is the vice chair
of the South African Association of Social Workers in Private Practice, KwaZulu Natal branch.
Vishanthie Sewpaul, PhD, is a Senior Professor in the School of Applied Human Sciences (Social work) at the
University of KwaZulu Natal. She is the president of the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa and
vice president on the Board of the International Association of Schools of Social Work.

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