Traveling for Abortion Services and the Rural Women 'We Must Not Forget'
65 South Dakota Law Review 1 (2020)
10 Pages Posted: 8 May 2020 Last revised: 14 May 2020
Date Written: April 15, 2020
Abstract
This is a book review of "Abortion Across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services" by Christabell Sethna and Gayle Davis (2019). Although "Abortion across Borders" makes many important points, there is one noticeable shortcoming: "Abortion across Borders" lacks an explicit discussion of rural women throughout most of the book. This book review draws common rural-based themes out of the essays and posits that rurality matters when discussing abortion travel. In summarizing the book, the editors make the intersectional argument that “un-even access to abortion services in local healthcare jurisdictions reinforces or exacerbates discrimination by gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and region.” I agree with that statement, but argue that the authors should have included rurality on this list. Missing from much of the book is the fact that rural women face particular barriers in accessing abortion, particularly when travel is involved.
Keywords: abortion, travel, rural, international, healthcare
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