Liamputtong Pranee
School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
Health Care Women Int. 2003 Mar;24(3):230-41. doi: 10.1080/07399330390183543.
In this article, I explore traditional Hmong explanations about abortion and the ethnomedical knowledge and practices that pertain to it. The article derived from in-depth interviews and participant observation with the Hmong who are now living in Melbourne, Australia. Hmong women are knowledgeable about indigenous fertility control methods including abortion. However, only women who are older and have had many children to ensure the continuity of the lineage have a right to abortion. Younger women do not have this right. Women may wish to control their fertility by means of abortion, but their wishes may be constrained by a societal norm that places a great deal of pressure on women to continue producing children. In a culture that values having many children, abortion is not easily accepted because it upsets the cosmological balance of the society. This has implications for younger Hmong women who may wish to control their fertility in Australia and elsewhere.
在本文中，我探讨了苗族关于堕胎的传统解释以及与之相关的民族医学知识和实践。本文源于对现居住在澳大利亚墨尔本的苗族进行的深入访谈和参与观察。苗族女性了解包括堕胎在内的本土生育控制方法。然而，只有年长且育有多个子女以确保家族延续的女性才有堕胎的权利。年轻女性没有这项权利。女性可能希望通过堕胎来控制生育，但她们的愿望可能会受到一种社会规范的限制，这种规范给女性继续生育带来了巨大压力。在一个重视多子多福的文化中，堕胎不易被接受，因为它打破了社会的宇宙平衡。这对那些可能希望在澳大利亚及其他地方控制生育的年轻苗族女性产生了影响。
