A Feminist Ethics of Abortion

In feminist philosophy, there is a silent but consistent recurrence of criticisms regarding the mainstream, “liberal” defense of the right to abortion, most prominently exemplified by Judith Jarvis Thomson’s seminal paper “A Defense of Abortion”. In this paper, I explore the feminist proposals of A...

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Main Author: Anna Réz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Eötvös Loránd University 2021-04-01
Series:Elpis
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Online Access:https://ojs.elte.hu/elpis/article/view/7606
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author Anna Réz
author_facet Anna Réz
author_sort Anna Réz
collection DOAJ
description In feminist philosophy, there is a silent but consistent recurrence of criticisms regarding the mainstream, “liberal” defense of the right to abortion, most prominently exemplified by Judith Jarvis Thomson’s seminal paper “A Defense of Abortion”. In this paper, I explore the feminist proposals of Alison M. Jaggar (1975) and Sally Markowitz (1990) and examine, in light of these, the prospects of a particularly feminist ethics of abortion. I argue that although feminist theorists are right to say that defenses based on bodily autonomy set the wrong agenda for public discourse, thus contributing to a misleading and uninformed debate, Thomsonian arguments still have considerable advantages, both in philosophy and in the public discourse. In particular, while Thomsonian accounts can successfully sidestep the conflict between the mother’s and the fetus’s rights, currently available feminist proposals can meaningfully transform but cannot eliminate this problem.
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spelling doaj-art-9ae7d508c5614b5c983fe072843bcc282025-01-25T17:58:06ZengEötvös Loránd UniversityElpis1788-82982732-36842021-04-0114110.54310/Elpis.2021.1.47313A Feminist Ethics of AbortionAnna Réz0ELTE BTK In feminist philosophy, there is a silent but consistent recurrence of criticisms regarding the mainstream, “liberal” defense of the right to abortion, most prominently exemplified by Judith Jarvis Thomson’s seminal paper “A Defense of Abortion”. In this paper, I explore the feminist proposals of Alison M. Jaggar (1975) and Sally Markowitz (1990) and examine, in light of these, the prospects of a particularly feminist ethics of abortion. I argue that although feminist theorists are right to say that defenses based on bodily autonomy set the wrong agenda for public discourse, thus contributing to a misleading and uninformed debate, Thomsonian arguments still have considerable advantages, both in philosophy and in the public discourse. In particular, while Thomsonian accounts can successfully sidestep the conflict between the mother’s and the fetus’s rights, currently available feminist proposals can meaningfully transform but cannot eliminate this problem. https://ojs.elte.hu/elpis/article/view/7606Judith Jarvis ThomsonAbortionFeminismFeminist Philosophy
spellingShingle Anna Réz
A Feminist Ethics of Abortion
Elpis
Judith Jarvis Thomson
Abortion
Feminism
Feminist Philosophy
title A Feminist Ethics of Abortion
title_full A Feminist Ethics of Abortion
title_fullStr A Feminist Ethics of Abortion
title_full_unstemmed A Feminist Ethics of Abortion
title_short A Feminist Ethics of Abortion
title_sort feminist ethics of abortion
topic Judith Jarvis Thomson
Abortion
Feminism
Feminist Philosophy
url https://ojs.elte.hu/elpis/article/view/7606
work_keys_str_mv AT annarez afeministethicsofabortion
AT annarez feministethicsofabortion