Call for Contributors

Call for Contributors

Canadian Abortion Experience: Voices on Choice(s)

Canadian Abortion Experience: Voices on Choice(s) is an edited collection that explores the abortion-related experiences of Canadian women (and men), activists, practitioners, and academics. At a time when women’s access to safe and legal abortion is facing renewed scrutiny under a majority Conservative government, this timely collection explores the issue from a variety of perspectives.

Divided into two parts, Canadian Abortion Experience will include narratives relaying the abortion experiences of patients, practitioners, activists, and others whose lives have been touched by abortion as well as think pieces and dialogues on a variety of issues pertaining to the pro-choice movement in Canada.  

Narratives should share remembrances, thoughts, feelings, motivations, and experiences as they pertain to abortion either on a personal or professional level.

Topics for think pieces may include (but are not limited to):

▪What does (or doesn't) “choice” mean to you?

▪Linguistic strategies (e.g. the use of “abortion rights” vs. “reproductive rights”; the use of “anti-choice” vs. “anti-abortion”; the use of “choice”)

▪Mobilizing the pro-choice majority (abortion and the “everywoman”)

▪Refocusing the abortion debate on the pregnant woman instead of the fetus

▪Reflections on the place/role of Morgentaler in pro-choice history/narrative

▪Future strategies for pro-choice activism

▪Continuities, changes, and challenges between the second and third waves of pro-choice feminist activism in Canada

▪Inclusions and exclusions in the pro-choice movement (e.g. class, race, ethnicity, regionalism)

▪The relationship between academic and frontline activism

▪Abortion and religion

▪Abortion and sexuality

▪Abortion and technology
▪Unequal access to abortion services
▪Reproductive justice

▪The medicalization of abortion

Think pieces should be short essays between 500 and 2500 words. Narratives can be of variable length up to approximately 2,000 words. All material should be original, unpublished elsewhere.

Submissions are due June 30, 2012.

For further information or to submit a piece, please contact Shannon Stettner, editor, via cdnabex@gmail.com.