Abstract
This article deconstructs previous notions of pregnancy. Using empirical data from French women's experience with RU486 for medical abortion, I demonstrate that very early and unwanted conceptions have an ambiguous quality. I illustrate an understanding of pregnancy as a reproductive continuum: these women understand pregnancy to include a stage where "eggs," and not fetuses, are present. I discuss how the use of RU486 creates new ways of knowing about the fetus, and I compare an understanding of the fetus by women using RU486 with previous understandings from ultrasound images, in utero photography, and the imagination. I demonstrate that women's embodied knowledge can expand the parameters of fetal discourse.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 92-108 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Medical Anthropology Quarterly |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2002 |
Keywords
- Abortion
- Embodied knowledge
- Fetal discourse
- RU486
- Reproductive technology