College of Nursing, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA; University of Colorado Population Center (CUPC), University of Colorado Boulder, 1440 15th Street, CO, 80302, Boulder, USA.
University of Colorado Population Center (CUPC), University of Colorado Boulder, 1440 15th Street, CO, 80302, Boulder, USA; Department of Sociology, University of Colorado Boulder, UCB 327 Ketchum 195, CO, 80309, Boulder, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2021 Jan;269:113508. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113508. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
Texas requires pregnant young people under 18 (i.e., minors) seeking abortion without parental consent to go to court with an attorney to petition a judge for permission to obtain abortion. There is a lack of empirical data on the process through which abortion laws stigmatize abortion and on the actors involved. We use data from in-depth qualitative interviews with 19 attorneys who participated in a collective 800 judicial bypass cases to explore what's at stake for multiple actors within a shared social space and how interactions between those actors reproduce stigma. We extend stigma theory to explain how structural abortion restrictions produce stigma at the individual level. We find that to protect their interests in "keeping pregnant minors in," the Texas court system constrains attorneys' ability to represent minors through politicization and stigmatization; attorneys face logistical and emotional challenges, including navigating hostile or ill-informed courts, witnessing court actors humiliate their clients without means of recourse, and experiencing stigma themselves. Although what's most at stake for their clients becomes most at stake for attorneys- helping young people obtain a judicial bypass so they can access abortion and protecting them from humiliation and trauma- they must reconcile their own violation of norms stigmatizing abortion with their consciences' motivation to represent bypass clients and protect their professional identity and career advancement from being "tainted" by taking judicial bypass cases. In order to protect what is at stake for their clients in the context of the highly stigmatized Texas courts, attorneys rationally make trade-offs that protect some stakes while undermining others. Moreover, attorneys' management of experienced stigma and their violation of norms stigmatizing abortion leads some to reproduce abortion stigma in their interactions with minors.
德克萨斯州要求未经父母同意寻求堕胎的 18 岁以下怀孕未成年人（即未成年人）与律师一起上法庭，向法官申请获得堕胎许可。目前缺乏关于堕胎法污名化堕胎以及涉及的行为者的过程的经验数据。我们使用了来自 19 名律师的深入定性访谈数据，这些律师参与了一个集体的 800 个司法绕过案件，以探讨在一个共同的社会空间中，多个行为者的利害关系是什么，以及这些行为者之间的相互作用如何产生污名。我们扩展污名理论，以解释结构性堕胎限制如何在个人层面产生污名。我们发现，为了保护他们“让未成年怀孕少女继续怀孕”的利益，德克萨斯州法院系统通过政治化和污名化限制了律师代表未成年人的能力；律师面临着后勤和情感方面的挑战，包括在敌对或信息不足的法庭上进行导航，目睹法庭行为者羞辱他们的客户而没有追索权，并自身受到污名化。尽管对他们的客户来说最重要的是对律师来说也最重要——帮助年轻人获得司法绕过，以便他们能够获得堕胎，并保护他们免受羞辱和创伤——他们必须调和自己违反污名化堕胎的规范与代表绕过客户的良心动机，以及保护自己的专业身份和职业发展不被“玷污”，因为他们接了司法绕过案件。为了在高度污名化的德克萨斯州法院的背景下保护客户的利益，律师们会理性地做出权衡，以保护某些利益，同时破坏其他利益。此外，律师们对经验性污名的管理以及对污名化堕胎规范的违反，导致一些律师在与未成年人的互动中产生了堕胎污名。
