Allen Deborah, Sable Marjorie R, Bennett Trude
, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
University of Missouri School of Social Work, Columbia, MO, USA.
Matern Child Health J. 2025 May 28. doi: 10.1007/s10995-025-04109-3.
The history of abortion rights in the US is long and contentious. Women have always had abortions, legal or not, and the legalization fight in recent history has been led by feminists. This paper tracks the course of that history through the Progressive Era of the first wave feminists, second wave feminism from the 1960s to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the reactive period of trying to minimize the harm of abortion restrictions, and the consequences of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overthrowing Roe v. Wade. For each time period we ask who was leading the fight, how they framed their advocacy, who were their opponents and what arguments they used, and the extent to which maternal and child health (MCH) professionals and institutions engaged in the struggle. We offer recommendations for MCH practice going forward to (1) embrace women's health and health care as inseparable from infant, child, and family health, and abortion as central to women's physical and mental health; (2) build partnerships and coalitions among entities identified with MCH and those advocating reproductive rights, particularly abortion; (3) become voices for abortion as an essential part of MCH and public health; and (4) framing abortion as an equity issue. Women's judgment about the timing of their own childbearing and women's ability to act on that judgment improves maternal and child survival and wellbeing.
美国堕胎权的历史漫长且充满争议。无论合法与否，女性一直都有进行堕胎的情况，而近代争取合法化的斗争一直由女权主义者引领。本文追溯了这段历史的进程，涵盖了第一波女权主义者的进步时代、从20世纪60年代到1973年最高法院“罗诉韦德案”判决的第二波女权运动、试图将堕胎限制的危害降至最低的反应期，以及2022年推翻“罗诉韦德案”的“多布斯诉杰克逊妇女健康组织案”判决的后果。对于每个时间段，我们探讨谁在引领这场斗争、他们如何构建自己的倡导、他们的对手是谁以及对手使用了哪些论点，以及母婴健康（MCH）专业人员和机构在这场斗争中的参与程度。我们为未来的母婴健康实践提供建议：（1）将妇女健康和医疗保健视为与婴儿、儿童和家庭健康不可分割，将堕胎视为妇女身心健康的核心；（2）在与母婴健康相关的实体和倡导生殖权利（特别是堕胎权利）的实体之间建立伙伴关系和联盟；（3）发出声音，将堕胎作为母婴健康和公共卫生的重要组成部分；（4）将堕胎界定为一个公平问题。女性对自己生育时机的判断以及根据该判断采取行动的能力，会提高母婴的生存几率和幸福程度。
