The Pot Bearer Understands Its Weight: An Analysis of Pro-abortion Discourses in Kenya

Abstract

The paper provides a detailed analysis of pro-abortion discourses in Kenya. It focuses on the arguments, philosophical principles, narratives and other important rhetorical strategies that are employed by pro-abortion actors in their struggle to achieve access to legal safe abortion in Kenya. The paper demonstrates that in an attempt to counter institutionalised foetal focused and moralising anti-abortion discourses espoused by anti-abortion crusaders, pro-abortion actors construct discourses that concentrate on the more politically acceptable realm of health complications and on the economic costs of unsafe abortion rather than on women‟s right to terminate a pregnancy. It is argued that the framing of the discourses is a result of neo-patrimonial politics, coupled with patriarchal tendencies, which have also enabled the institutionalization of anti-abortion discourses. Data for this paper was collected in 2009 in Kenya as part of PhD research.