Supporting abortion: feminist approaches

An edited book

Editors, Catriona Ida Macleod, Lesley Hoggart, Godfrey Kangaude and Ayomide Oluseye, invite chapter proposals for an edited book, Supporting abortion: feminist approaches. The aim of the book is to bring together accounts concerning feminist-oriented support for people in accessing abortions in different contexts or settings. We view support as a broad-ranging concept, including conducive policy/guidelines, social support, clinical support and self-supported abortions.

Depending on proposals received, the book will probably be divided into four parts:

(1) Policy and abortion support. Abstracts in this stream should examine how laws, policies, guidelines, and institutional frameworks shape the availability, accessibility, and quality of services. Submissions should adopt a feminist, rights-based perspective that addresses structural inequalities and promotes equitable access and justice.

(2) Self-supported and self-managed abortion. Feminist analyses of self-managed abortion emphasise the importance of support, connection and accompaniment in enabling people to self-manage safely and with confidence, rather than framing self-management as an isolated or individualised practice. At the same time, we recognise that self-managed abortion spans a continuum of experiences, from models of supported self-management involving telemedicine and clinical back-up, through to community-based accompaniment and peer support, and to more isolated forms of self-management with little or no formal support, shaped by legal, social and digital inequalities. We welcome submissions on a full range of experiences and how feminist-oriented support should work, utilising different terminology where appropriate.

(3) Social support (e.g., interpersonal; cultural): Abstracts in this stream should examine how interpersonal relationships, cultural contexts, and mediated environments shape experiences of seeking, undergoing, and reflecting on abortion. Submissions should explore how feminist-oriented  abortion support is enacted, negotiated, constrained, or enabled across diverse settings. We particularly encourage chapter proposals that address partner, family, and peer support; cultural and community networks; and online and digital environments, including social media, forums, telehealth platforms, and virtual accompaniment spaces.

(4) Clinical support. Abstracts in this stream should address feminist-oriented support in an activity or activities within the range of clinical services provided in administering the abortion procedure, including pre- and post-abortion consultations, clinical administration of medication abortion, the performance of surgical abortion, pre- and post-abortion counselling, procedures for detecting foetal anomalies and the administration of induction of fetal cardiac asystole in advanced gestation abortion.

We anticipate that authors will draw on varying feminist lenses and methods to understand abortion support within their particular settings and in relation to the four areas listed above. Our hope is to bring these approaches into conversation with each other through brief introductory essays at the beginning of each section and an overarching introduction.

If you are interested in contributing to this project, please send us a chapter proposal (to Anelisiwe Manyati on a.manyati@ru.ac.za) by 15 May 2026. Chapter proposals should be presented in the template below. The abstract should not be longer than 250 words and should contain a clear explication of the feminist approach taken.

We would like to make the process as collaborative as possible, and will invite prospective authors to provide input on the final book proposal.

Proposal template

Last Modified: Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:52:35 SAST