Silenced encounters: an affective history of accessing abortion in Alberta, 1969-1988

Abstract

This thesis is an affective history of abortion as told through the memories from four individuals; two retired medical practitioners who sat on Therapeutic Abortion Committees (TACs) and two women who accessed abortion services in Alberta between 1969 and 1988. Further, my analysis of access to abortion focuses not only on the convoluted history of reproductive services in Alberta but also draws attention to the communities of affect that circulate between individual agents such as between the medical practitioner and the patient, the narrator and the interviewer, and also the dialogue that often ensues in casual encounters where the topic of abortion is discussed. Through focusing on the complex emotions that circulate within the four oral histories of abortion, I aim to challenge the binary of either grief or relief that is often equated to narratives of abortion.