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From institutional interaction to neocolonial philanthrocapitalism :tracking anti-abortion ideologies
LMB/002A, Law and Sociology Building, Campus East, University of York (Map)
Event details
How do abortion counselling sessions conducted in a city in South Africa reflect neocolonial philanthrocapitalism? In this presentation, Professor Catriona Macleod relates a startling journey of discovery in relation to this question. By way of background, abortion is legal on request in South Africa up to 12 weeks of gestation and under various grounds thereafter, including for socio-economic reasons. The law stipulates that non-mandatory and non-directive counselling must be offered.
The team's journey started with a project that included the recording of pre-abortion consultation sessions in several abortion clinics in the Eastern Cape. In one of these clinics, they were informed that counselling was offered free of charge by Breath of Life, a Christian organisation. Recordings of these sessions revealed that they conveyed a clear directive and anti-abortion message. Other than religious and moral themes, references were made to foetal personhood and the divine destiny of motherhood; non-evidence-based claims of the risks of abortion (breast cancer, death, post-abortion syndrome); the awful nature of the procedure; and adoption as a preferable route.
Breath of Life’s company profile reveals an affiliation with and training from Heartbeat International. Heartbeat International bills itself as the largest pregnancy help association globally, with a network of over 4,000 affiliates “offering vast alternatives to abortion”. It claims to “rescue women in crisis from the belief that abortion is their only option”. Analysis of Heartbeat International funding to five African countries shows that significantly more funding is provided to countries with liberal abortion legislation (South Africa and Zambia) than the other countries.
This case illustrates the functioning of neocolonialist philanthrocapitalism, in which a global North organisation, operating from a “saviour” position, treats funding as a strategic process aimed at producing measurable social returns in the global South (in this case, anti-abortion actions), bypassing the country’s laws (in this case, non-directive pre-abortion counselling) in collaboration with local actors.
Image by Marcelo Russo de Oliveira from Pixabay
About the speaker
Professor Catriona Ida Macleod
Catriona Ida Macleod is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and SARChI chair of Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction at Rhodes University, South Africa.
She is author of the multi-award winning book ‘Adolescence’, pregnancy and abortion published by Routledge in 2011, co-author (with Tracy Morison) of Men’s pathways to parenthood, published by HSRC Press, 2015, lead editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research, published by Palgrave, 2018, co-author (with Pedro Pinto) of A Genealogy of Puberty Science, published by Routledge, 2019, co-author (with Ulandi du Plessis) of Abortion Services and Reproductive Justice in Rural South Africa, published by Wits University Press, 2024, and co-author (with Angie Vorster) of No kind choice: women’s experiences of induced termination of pregnancy due to fetal abnormality, to be published by Wits University Press, 2027. She was editor-in-chief of the international journal Feminism & Psychology from 2013 to 2024.
She is recipient of several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Critical Health Psychology (2021).
Venue details
Wheelchair accessible