Post-abortion narratives shared by Perth women: Personal decision making as embedded social practice

I examine the narratives of an abortion decision-making process through the sociological lens of habitus. I argue that the reasons women cite for accessing an abortion are rooted in the social conditions required for acceptable mothering which have been internalised and are operationalised through decision-making. Hence, this thesis is simultaneously about abortion and about motherhood, concepts which are seen to be in dialectical relationships, interacting and informing each other, rather than mutually occurring states. The conceptual framework of habitus provides a handle to discuss the relational reality of the participants’ decision-making process without diminishing their autonomy.