Professor Catriona Macleod: "The urgency of transnational feminist action: the case of the US Christian right and abortion in South Africa"

"The urgency of transnational feminist action: the case of the US Christian right and abortion in South Africa."

Catriona Ida Macleod

Distinguished Professor of Psychology and SARChI chair of Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction at Rhodes University, South Africa

Abstract

In this paper, I speak to harms that may be inflicted on global South women by the US Christian right. I outline a case of philanthrocapitalism, which refers the funding of non-government organisations in an investment‑like ways to produce social returns, in this case the entrenchment of anti-abortion sentiments. I track the movement of anti-abortion ideologies and money from Heartbeat International headquartered in Ohio, USA, to Breath of Life in KuGompo, South Africa. Breath of Life, inter alia, provides counselling to women “experiencing crisis pregnancies”, and has managed to negotiate a space within the abortion clinic of a hospital in KuGompo. Abortion is legal on request in South Africa up to 12 weeks of gestation and under various grounds thereafter, including for socio-economic reasons. The law stipulates that non-mandatory and non-directive counselling must be offered. As part of a larger project, we recorded the abortion counselling provided by Breath of Life counsellors and interviewed users after the sessions. The sessions conveyed a clear anti-abortion message. Other than religious and moral themes, references were made to foetal personhood and the divine destiny of motherhood; non-evidence-based claims of the risks of abortion (breast cancer, death, post-abortion syndrome); the awful nature of the procedure, and adoption as the preferred route. Users referred to the sessions as hurtful, painful and as sowing doubt, even when they had no choice. This case emphasises the urgency of transnational feminist action to expose the manner in which neocolonialist philanthrocapitalism entrenches interactions that disregard women’s decisional and bodily autonomy, defies local laws (in this case, non-directive abortion counselling) as well the complex contexts within which women make decisions.

Brief bio

Catriona Ida Macleod is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and SARChI chair of Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction at Rhodes University, South Africa. She is author of the multi-award winning book ‘Adolescence’, pregnancy and abortion: constructing a threat of degeneration published by Routledge in 2011, co-author (with Tracy Morison) of Men’s pathways to parenthood, published by HSRC Press, 2015, lead editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research, published by Palgrave, 2018, co-author (with Pedro Pinto) of A Genealogy of Puberty Science, published by Routledge, 2019, co-author (with Ulandi du Plessis) of Abortion Services and Reproductive Justice in Rural South Africa, published by Wits University Press, 2024, and co-author (with Angie Vorster) of No kind choice: women’s experiences of induced termination of pregnancy due to fetal abnormality, to be published by Wits University Press, 2027. She was editor-in-chief of the international journal Feminism & Psychology from 2013 to 2024. She is recipient of several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Critical Health Psychology (2021).

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