Date of Award
5-2022
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Degree Name
Global Cultural Studies, BA
School
CAS
Department
World Languages & Cultural Studies Department
Faculty Advisor
Barbara Abrams
Second Advisor
Bobbi Van Gilder
Abstract
The Texas Heartbeat Act, enacted on September 1, 2021 imposes a near-total ban on abortions after a six week gestation period, with the exception of instances where the termination of a pregnancy is needed to save the pregnant individual. This bill, which does not impact the mostly cis-men who legislated it, has many negative implications for women and people with uteruses in Texas and across the nation. Due to the social context of women’s subordination within patriarchal culture, and the historical context of limiting reproductive rights as a means of maintaining the political power imbalance, it is important to critically examine the bill and its effects. I outline the patriarchal subordination of women, provide a brief history of abortion rights in America and in Texas, and analyze whose rights the bill actually infringes upon. SB 8 exists in a larger fight to limit legal abortions and ultimately overturn Roe v. Wade. Though SB 8 and anti-abortion ideology more broadly claim to uphold the rights of all people, born and unborn, it becomes clear upon consideration that it serves to maintain hierarchical social order as imposed by the patriarchy.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Murphy, Grace, "The Texas Heartbeat Act and Patriarchal Power: The Role of Reproduction in the Social, Cultural, and Political Subordination of Women" (2022). Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects. 24.
https://dc.suffolk.edu/undergrad/24