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The Open University ’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Feminism , Abortion and Disability : irreconcilable differences ?

There has been considerable discussion of the political allegiance between the feminist and disability movements, but the question of abortion remains a thorny one. Disability rights advocates have been keen to demonstrate that it is possible to believe in a woman's right to sovereignty over the body and, yet, be opposed to the selective abortion of an impaired foetus – describing the latter as a form of 'weak' eugenics. The aim of this paper is to show that whilst there may be some points of agreement between the feminist and disability movements on the question of abortion, there exist fundamental and irreconcilable differences. Introduction Several authors have recently drawn attention to the tension which exists between the feminist principle that a woman's right to control her own body must entail the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and the concerns of the disability movement that to permit the abortion of foetuses on the grounds of suspected impairment is tantamount to endorsing an anti-disability eugenics (Hubbard, 1997; Shakespeare, 1998; Sheldon, 1999). The same authors have also sought to argue that this tension is in fact more an illusion than a reality and that, with careful reasoning, it is possible to show that the feminist and disability equality movements do not necessarily have to be at odds on this important issue. It is the aim of this paper to explore these claims in some detail, and to show that whilst there might be certain general points of ideological agreement between the two movements, on the central issue of abortion, a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict inevitably remains.