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Orchestrating moral bearability in the clinical management of second-trimester selective abortion

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  • Heinsen, Laura Louise
  • Bruheim, Camilla
  • Adrian, Stine Willum

Abstract

In present-day Denmark, second-trimester selective abortion has become a regular medical event, which has turned selective abortion care into a routinized task for health staff. In this article, we explore what forms of care practices abortion providers in Danish public hospitals engage in. Using in-depth interviews, medical documents and social media data, we show that at the center of selective abortion care provision is not only securing safe medical outcomes, but moral labor orientated towards achieving a morally manageable medical event, permeating institutionally developed clinical guidelines, relational face-to-face care, and ideologically driven encouragement of parental-fetal attachment through the use of material objects and visibility practices. We propose to view these entangled realms of practices as aiming towards generating what we term “moral bearability”, meaning that selective abortion care is orchestrated in particular ways to make the abortion, and the implied making and handling of death, simultaneously bearable for couples and health staff.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinsen, Laura Louise & Bruheim, Camilla & Adrian, Stine Willum, 2023. "Orchestrating moral bearability in the clinical management of second-trimester selective abortion," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:338:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623006639
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116306
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Roe, Kathleen M., 1989. "Private troubles and public issues: Providing abortion amid competing definitions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1191-1198, January.
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