Are We There Yet?: Mobilities, Shame, and the Rhetoric of the Abortion Road Trip

Since the overturning of Rove vs. Wade in June of 2022, conversations about abortionhave shifted to question the role of travel in a post-Roe political landscape. With over half of states significantly restricting access to abortion care in the first year since the passage of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health, interstate road travel has become a central part of the contemporary abortion access landscape. Thus, this thesis investigates “the abortion road trip” as both a conceptual framework and lived experience of restrictive abortion access. Through feminist rhetorical criticism of three case studies, this thesis specifically centers how mobility, autonomy, and space are all rhetorically constructed through road trip journeys taken to seek abortion care and activist efforts to provide reproductive health care through road travel. Ultimately, this analysis contributes to a growing body of work on reproductive justice in the post-Roe era and argues that Reproductive Justice advocacy must center road travel in order to best support pregnant people and people who may become pregnant.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Alabama Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kennedy, Clare F.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ohl, Jessy J

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pyle, Benjamin
• Aswad, Noor G.
• Purvis, Jennifer

• Abortion
• Mobility
• Rhetoric
• Travel

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Dc Identifier Other

1053406

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ir.ua.edu:123456789/13828