Latino Studies

, Volume 12, Issue 3, pp 399–423 | Cite as

Barriers to abortion facing Mexican immigrants in North Carolina: Choosing folk healers versus standard medical options

  • Natalia Deeb-Sossa
  • Deborah L Billings
Original Article
First Online:

Abstract

Abortion is among the most stigmatized reproductive health issues faced by women in the United States. Using the reproductive justice framework, we discuss the numerous obstacles Mexican immigrant women and teens living in North Carolina face in seeking abortions and the ways in which the barriers experienced by these women are the product of intersecting forms of oppression based on race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, age, immigration status and linguistic abilities, among others. These struggles are depicted through ethnographic data as well as interviews with midwives, program directors, folk healers (curanderas/os) and Mexican immigrant women and girls making decisions about abortion. Their experiences are analyzed to highlight that Mexican immigrant women and teens are restricted by legal and medical institutions. The findings focus on how these women ultimately receive abortion services in the face of structural barriers to formal care and why women often seek abortion care outside of the formal health-care sector.

Keywords

abortion immigration Mexico North Carolina folk healers curandera 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Amuchástegui Herrera, A. and M.R. Zivy . 2002. Clandestine Abortion in Mexico: A Question of Mental As Well As Physical Health. Reproductive Health Matters 10 (19): 95–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Angulo, V. and S. Guendelman . 2002. Crossing the Border for Abortion Services: The Tijuana-San Diego Connection. Health Care for Women International 23 (6–7): 642–653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Avila, E. and J. Parker . 2000. Woman Who Glows in the Dark: A Curandera Reveals Traditional Aztec Secrets of Physical and Spiritual Health. New York: Penguin Group.Google Scholar
  4. Barrington, C., D.K. Hilfinger Messias and L. Weber . 2012. Implications of Racial and Ethnic Relations for Health and Well-Being in New Latino Communities: A Case Study of West Columbia, South Carolina. Latino Studies 10 (1–2): 155–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Billings, D.L. et al. 2002. Constructing Access to Legal Abortion Services in Mexico City. Reproductive Health Matters 10 (19): 86–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Boonstra, H. and A. Sonfield . 2000. Issues in Brief: Revisiting Public Funding of Abortion for Poor Women. New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute.Google Scholar
  7. Boonstra, H., R.B. Gold, C. Richards and L. Finer . 2005. Abortion in Women’s Lives. New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute.Google Scholar
  8. Burawoy, M. 2005. For Public Sociology. American Sociological Review 70 (1): 4–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Castañeda, X., D.L. Billings and J. Blanco . 2003. Abortion Beliefs and Practices Among Midwives (Parteras) in a Rural Mexican Township. Women & Health 37 (2): 73–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Chabram-Dernersesian, A. and A. de la Torre . 2008. Speaking From the Body: Latinas on Health And Culture. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
  11. Charron-Prochownik, D. et al. 2006. Reproductive Health and Preconception Counseling Awareness in Adolescents with Diabetes: What They Don’t Know Can Hurt Them. The Diabetes Educator 32 (2): 235–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Chavez, L.R. 2004. A Glass Half Empty: Latina Reproduction and Public Discourse. Human Organization 63 (2): 173–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Collins, P.H. 1998. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
  14. Collins, P.H. 2005. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  15. de la Torre, A. and A. Estrada . 2001. Mexican Americans and Health: ¡Sana! ¡Sana! Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
  16. Deeb-Sossa, N. and J. Bickham-Mendez . 2008. Enforcing Borders in the Nuevo South: Gender and Migration in Williamsburg, VA and the Research Triangle, NC. Gender and Society 22 (5): 613–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Delgado Bernal, D., C.A. Elenes, F.E. Godinez and S. Villenas eds. 2006. Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology. New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
  18. Di Mauro, D. and C. Joffe . 2007. The Religious Right and the Reshaping of Sexual Policy: An Examination of Reproductive Rights and Sexuality Education. Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC 4 (1): 67–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Drever, A. 2006. New Neighbors in Dixie: The Community Impacts of Latino Migration to Tennessee. In Latinos in the New South: Transformations of Place, eds. H.A. Smith and O.J. Furuseth. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press.Google Scholar
  20. Fine, M. and L. Weis . 1998. The Unknown City: Lives of Poor and Working Class Young Adults. Boston, MA: Beacon.Google Scholar
  21. Finer, L.B., L.F. Frohwirth, L.A. Dauphinee, S. Singh and A.M. Moore . 2005. Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 37 (3): 110–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Finer, L.B. and S.K. Henshaw . 2006. Disparities in Rates of Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, 1994 and 2001. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 38 (2): 90–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Fink, L. 2003. The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Finkler, K. 2001. Physicians at Work, Patients in Pain: Biomedical Practice and Patient Response in Mexico, 2nd edn. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.Google Scholar
  25. Galante, C. 1992. Plantas medicinales de la región istmeña utilizadas en la reproducción. In Medicina tradicional, herbolaria y salud comunitaria de Oaxaca, ed. S. Paola, 119–151. Oaxaca, Mexico: CIESAS/Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca.Google Scholar
  26. Gálvez, A. 2011. Patient Citizens, Immigrant Mothers. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
  27. Goldberg, M. 2006. Laying Siege to the Last Abortion Clinic in Mississippi. The Public Eye Magazine, Fall 2006, http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v20n3/goldberg_abortion.html, accessed 20 July 2013.
  28. Graham, J.S. 2013. Curanderismo. Texas State Historical Assocation: A Digital Gateway to Texas History,http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/sdc01, accessed 16 February 2013.
  29. Grossman, D., J. Kingston, S. Schweikert, E. Troncoso, S. Falquier and D. L. Billings . 2005. Women’s experiences crossing from Mexico to San Diego to access safe, legal abortion services. Oral presentation at Annual Meeting, Philadelphia: American Public Health Association, 12 December.Google Scholar
  30. Grossman, D. et al. 2010. Self-induction of abortion among women in the United States. Reproductive Health Matters 18 (36): 136–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Gutiérrez, E.R. 2008. Fertile Matters: The Politics of Mexican-Origin Women’s Reproduction. Tuscon, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
  32. Guttmacher Institute. 2006. Abortion in Women’s Lives, http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/05/04/AiWL.pdf, accessed 17 January 2006.
  33. Guttmacher Institute and Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. 2003. An Overview of Abortion in the United States, https://www.guttmacher.org/presentations/ab_slides.html, accessed January 2003.
  34. Hamburger, S. 1978. Profile of Curanderos: A Study of Mexican Folk Practitioners. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 24 (1): 19–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Harding, S. 2003. The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  36. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 2001. Sexual health of young Latinos in the US, http://www.kff.org/hivaids/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=13712, accessed 29 June 2012.Google Scholar
  37. Hernandez, L. and I. Bernal . 1992. Practicas y procedimientos terapéuticos de las parteras tradicionales. In Medicina tradicional, herbolaria y salud comunitaria de Oaxaca, ed. S. Paola, 189–208. Oaxaca, Mexico: CIESAS/Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca.Google Scholar
  38. Hochschild, A.R. 1999. The Second Shift. New York: Bard.Google Scholar
  39. Hurtado, A. 2003. Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on Sexuality and Identity. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
  40. Joffe, C. 1995. Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and After Roe v. Wade. Boston MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
  41. Joffe, C. 2006. Reproductive Regression, http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/01/23/reproductive_regression.php, also found at http://www.alternet.org/rights/31199/, accessed 24 January 2006.
  42. Joffe, C. 2009. Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of us. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
  43. Jones, R.K. and K. Kooistra . 2011. Abortion Incidence and Access to Services in the United States, 2008. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 43 (1): 41–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. Kaiser Family Foundation, State Health Facts. 2012. North Carolina: State Funding of Abortions Under Medicaid, 1 June, http://www.statehealthfacts.org/profileind.jsp?rgn=35&ind=458, accessed 26 February 2013.
  45. Kaplan, C.P., P.I. Erickson, S.L. Stewart and L.A. Crane . 2001. Young Latinas and Abortion: The Role of Cultural Factors, Reproductive Behavior, and Alternative Roles to Motherhood. Health Care for Women International 22 (7): 667–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Kumar, A., L. Hessini and E.M. Mitchell . 2009. Conceptualizing Abortion Stigma. Culture, Health & Sexuality 11 (6): 625–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  47. Lamas, M. and S. Bissell . 2000. Abortion and Politics in Mexico: ‘Context is All’. Reproductive Health Matters 8 (16): 10–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  48. Menjívar, C. and O. Salcido . 2002. Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence: Common Experiences in Different Countries. Gender and Society 116 (6): 898–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  49. Minnis, A.M. and N.S. Padian . 2001. Reproductive Health Differences Among Latin American- and US-Born Young Women. Journal of Urban Health 78 (4): 627–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina. 2006. Choosing Lies and Deception: Crisis Pregnancy Centers in North Carolina, http://www.prochoicenorthcarolina.org/assets/files/cpcdocument.pdf, accessed 17 November 2009.
  52. NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina. 2009b. Restrictions on Low-Income Women’s Access to Abortion, http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/choice-action-center/in_your_state/who-decides/state-profiles/north-carolina.html?templateName=lawdetails&issueID=7&ssumID=2750, accessed 21 November 2009.
  53. National Abortion Federation. 2003. Women Who Have Abortions, http://nationalabortionfederation.com/pubs_research/publications/ downloads/about_abortion/women_who_have_abortions.pdf, accessed 12 January 2006.Google Scholar
  54. National Abortion Federation. 2006. Abortion Facts About Teenage Women, http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/facts/teenage_women.html, accessed 12 January 2006.
  55. National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. 2004. Latinas and Abortion Access, http://latinainstitute.org/sites/default/files/publications/AbortionIssueBrief.pdf, accessed January 2004.
  56. National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. 2011. Latino Abortion Attitude Polling, http://latinainstitute.org/publications/Poll-Latino-Voters-Hold-Compassionate-Views-on-Abortion, accessed 29 June 2012.
  57. National Network of Abortion Funds. 2005. Abortion Funding: A Matter of Justice, http://www.nnaf.org/pdf/NNAF%20Policy%20Report.pdf, accessed 12 January 2006.
  58. NC PRAMS North Carolina Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). 2011. North Carolina Mothers Who Report Unintended Pregnancies, Surveillance Update 2011, http://www.schs.state.nc.us/schs/pdf/PRAMS_SU_2_WEB.pdf, accessed 26 February 2013.Google Scholar
  59. Office of the Governor, Office of Hispanic/Latino Affairs. 2011. Demographic trends of Hispanics/Latinos in North Carolina, http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/providers/DWI/hispanic-latinodemographicsreport.pdf, accessed 26 June 2012.
  60. Padilla, R., V. Gomez, S.L. Biggerstaff and P.S. Mehler . 2001. Use of Curanderismo in a Public Health Care System. Archives of Internal Medicine 161 (28): 1336–1340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  61. Pew Hispanic Center. 2005. The New Latino South: The Context and Consequences of Rapid Population Growth, http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/50.1.pdf, accessed 20 July 2014.
  63. Roberts, D. 1997. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
  64. Rosing, M.A. and C.D. Archbald . 2000. The Knowledge, Acceptability, and Use of Misoprostol for Self-Induced Medical Abortion in An Urban US Population. Journal of the American Medical Women’s Assocation 55 (3): 183–185.Google Scholar
  65. Ross, L. 2006. Understanding Reproductive Justice, http://www.sistersong.net/publications_and_articles/Understanding_RJ.pdf, accessed 23 November 2010.
  66. Rubel, A., J.K. Weller-Fahey and M. Trosdal . 1975. Conception, Gestation, and Delivery According to Some Mananabang of Cebu. Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 3 (2–3): 131–145.Google Scholar
  67. Saldivar-Hull, S. 1991. Feminism on the Border: From Gender Politics to Geopolitics. In: Criticism in the Borderlands: Studies in Chicano Literature, Culture, and Ideology, eds. H. Calderon and J.D. Saldivar. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
  68. Sánchez, M. 2007. Latina Health in North Carolina: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices, Focus Group Research Report, http://www.nchealthystart.org/downloads2/LIMA%20REPORT%202007.pdf, accessed 20 February 2013.
  69. Silberman, P. et al. 2003. North Carolina Latino health, 2003: A report from the Latino Health Task Force. Durham, NC: North Carolina Institute of Medicine, http://www.ncmedicaljournal.com/wp-content/uploads/NCMJ/may-jun-03/siberman.pdf, accessed July 2005.Google Scholar
  70. Silva, M., D.L. Billings, S.G. García and D. Lara . 2009. Physicians’ Agreement with and Willingness to Provide Abortion Services in the Case of Pregnancy from Rape in Mexico. Contraception 79 (1): 56–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  71. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. 2006. Understanding Reproductive Justice, http://www.sistersong.net/publications_and_articles/Understanding_RJ.pdf, accessed June 2010.
  72. Smedley, B.D., A.Y. Stith and A.R. Nelson eds. 2002. Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, Washington DC: Board on Health Sciences Policy, Institute of Medicine.Google Scholar
  73. Smith, H.A. and O.J. Furuseth, eds. 2006. Latinos in the New South: Transformations of Place. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.Google Scholar
  74. Sneeringer, R., D.L. Billings, B. Ganatra and T.L. Baird . 2012. Roles of Pharmacists in Expanding Access to Safe and Effective Medical Abortion in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Public Health Policy 33 (2): 218–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  75. Talmi, D., R. Schryer, D.L. Billings and R. Gordon . 2005. The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Latinas: A Five-County Needs Assessment. Chapel Hill, NC: Ipas.Google Scholar
  76. US Census. 1990. 1990 Census Briefs. The Hispanic Population, http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-3.pdf, accessed 23 November 2011.
  77. US Census. 2000. 2000 Census Briefs. The Hispanic Population, http://2000.census.gov/2000census/data/. 2000 Census Briefs, accessed 23 November 2011.Google Scholar
  78. US Census. 2010. 2010 Census Briefs. The Hispanic Population, http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-3.pdf, accessed 23 November 2011.
  79. Villenas, S. 1996. The Colonizer/Colonized Chicana Ethnographer: Identity, Marginalization, and Co-Optation in the Field. Harvard Educational Review 66 (4): 711–731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  80. Weber, L. 2010. Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality: A Conceptual Framework, 2nd edn. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  81. Wood, J.T. 1993. Gender and Moral Voice: Moving From Women’s Nature to Standpoint Epistemology. Women’s Studies in Communication 15 (1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  82. Zavella, P. 1993. Feminist Insider Dilemmas: Constructing Ethnic Identity with Chicana Informants. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 13 (3): 138–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Natalia Deeb-Sossa
    • 1
  • Deborah L Billings
    • 2
  1. 1.University of California at Davis
  2. 2.University of South CarolinaColumbia

Personalised recommendations