FEELING ABORTION RHETORIC

212 Pages·2015·0.54 MB·English

FEELING ABORTION RHETORIC: COLLECTIVIZING MORAL EMOTIONS
IN A POST-ROE ERA
by
EMILY M. WINDERMAN
(Under the Direction of Celeste M. Condit)
ABSTRACT
This dissertation project examines the emotional and moral dynamics of contemporary
abortion rhetoric by examining three case studies between the years of 2011 and 2013. I ask the
question: how do public emotions function to define the contours of collective affiliation in one
of the most heated public disagreements in the last 150 years. I coin a reading strategy entitled
emotional adherence that seeks to understand how the emotions of sympathy, disgust, and anger
circulate and adhere to bodies, objects, and spaces and thereby solidify the permeable boundaries
of collective identity. Each chapter provides a history of the emotion and examines how the
emotion functions to suture collective affiliation. I examine various texts that exemplify some of
the major debates occurring in abortion-rights discourse today including visual imaging
technologies, abortion clinic surveillance, and public modes of resistance. Each chapter teases
out the circulation and uptake of the emotion in question and then applies the theoretical
framework to the case at hand. In the conclusion, I argue for the continued significance of
studying emotion in rhetorical studies at the juncture of the affective turn and consider the role of
the academic in voicing reproductive health controversies in the 21st century.
INDEX WORDS: rhetoric, abortion, pro-life, pro-choice, emotions, affect, morality,
collective identity
FEELING ABORTION RHETORIC: COLLECTIVIZING MORAL EMOTIONS
IN A POST-ROE ERA

by

EMILY M. WINDERMAN
BA, Eastern Michigan University, 2007
MA, Eastern Michigan University, 2009

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2015
© 2015
Emily M. Winderman
All Rights Reserved
FEELING ABORTION RHETORIC: COLLECTIVIZING MORAL EMOTIONS
IN A POST-ROE ERA

by

EMILY M. WINDERMAN

Major Professor: Celeste M. Condit
Committee: Barbara A. Biesecker
Kelly E. Happe
Belinda A. Stillion Southard
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru

Electronic Version Approved:

Julie Coffield
Interim Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
May 2015
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to my family, without whom none of this would have ever been
possible.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have been looking forward to writing this acknowledgement section since the day I
began this Ph.D. program. The opportunity to convey gratitude to the people who have taught,
supported, and loved me throughout this challenge has been a primary impetus for finishing. I
first thank Celeste for guiding me through this entire process and having a faith in me that
countered almost every self-doubt that has entered my mind along the way. It has been one of
my life’s greatest privileges to learn from you. Next, I thank my committee members for
challenging and supporting me through the past 6 years. Thank you for helping me to grow.
Barb: I am so grateful for your high standards that will always occupy a space in the back of my
mind, encouraging me to be more careful and thorough in my work. Belinda: thank you for your
support throughout the job market process, in particular. I am eternally grateful for your advice
and for letting me borrow your clothes. Kelly: Thank you for helping me curate my very first
reading list at the start of this program and for asking me some of the more challenging questions
throughout my defenses. Carolina: Thank you for being such a supportive outside committee
member. I am grateful for the seminar I got to take with you and hope that more people from the
Department will follow suit.
I have to thank my incredible friends and colleagues. Jamie Landau was an informal first
year mentor for me that has happily morphed into a vibrant friendship since she left UGA. I
treasure our writing dates and her intellectual generosity to read countless drafts. Thank you for
being a “sounding board” on all things academic and personal. Nicole Hurt: Thank you for
being a wonderful friend through the years—I look forward to writing with you about
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reproductive issues for years to come. Thank you for fiercely protecting my time this semester
as I wrote and interviewed. Stacy Westerman was my partner in DIY-crime on the weekends
and the best unpaid wedding planner (and best friend) in the world. Nick Romerhausen: What is
there to say, except thank you for being my soul friend for a lifetime. See you at C-Dinner. Lee
Pierce: thank you for being my buddy throughout this whole process and making me laugh
uncontrollably. Thank you for rolling your eyes when I asked you at the beginning of this all:
“Do you have any advice on how to be a good grad student?” Erin Basinger: Thank you for
teaching me boundaries. Kristin Andersen: My COMM sister, you are one of the most beautiful
souls I know. Thank you for your love! Thank you, also, to Michael Tew, Christin Huggins,
Sarah Tuck, Sara Comer, Jeremy “Powdered” Grossman, Eric Sloss, Sally Spaulding, Brittany
Brown, Athena Murray, Jason Myres, Dustin Greenwalt, Laura Kollar, Logan Gramzinski, and
Heather Cohen.
This dissertation would have been nearly impossible without my Bikram Yoga family. I
am grateful to Jolin Conine for opening the studio, inspiring me with her determination, and
giving Athens the gift of yoga. Thanks for being an incredible teacher and friend. Melanie,
Lindsay, and Sydney: your friendships helped make me a whole person throughout this process.
Yoga helped me to think about emotion and bodies as I worked through my own in the blue
room.
I am the luckiest person in the world to have the most wonderful family there is. My
parents have always been my best friends and fiercest supporters. Thank you for everything
from driving me to all my voice lessons to reassuring me that I would get through this. Murray,
my sweet gentle-pup, slept on my lap throughout most of this dissertation—thank you for being
my snuggle bunny. Millie has provided much needed comic relief. Last, but certainly not least,
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I thank Atilla for loving me in the most intense and beautiful ways possible. While I could fill
up 200 pages explaining all the reasons why you made this dissertation do-able, I must try to
synthesize here. From being my sounding board to proofreading every page, to the much needed
emotional support required of a dissertation, you are the reason why I could do it every day.
Space allows me to only proclaim that I am truly the luckiest person to be able to call you my
spouse. I look forward to a long lifetime of adventures with you. Thank you for being the love
of my life.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v
1 EMOTION, MORALITY, AND ABORTION RHETORIC .........................................1
Introduction ..............................................................................................................1
Why Moral Emotions in Abortion Rhetoric? A Purpose and Rationale ..................4
Abortion Rhetorical Scholarship: Where Have We Been? ......................................8
Inquiry and Intervention: Towards a Rhetorical Theory of Moral Emotion .........19
Chapter Outlines ....................................................................................................34
2 FETAL IMAGING AND RHETORICAL SYMPATHY IN OHIO HOUSE BILL
125: THE HEARTBEAT BILL ...................................................................................42
Introduction ............................................................................................................42
Feeling versus Seeing Pregnancy: From Quickening to the Ultrasound ...............45
Towards Theorizing Sympathy as a Moral Emotion .............................................53
Analysis..................................................................................................................63
Conclusion .............................................................................................................75
3 GREEDY AND GROSS: MORAL DISGUST AND THE CONSTITUTION OF
ABORTION’S CONTEMPORARY ‘BACK ALLEY’ IN THE CASE OF DR.
KERMIT GOSNELL ...................................................................................................79
Introduction ............................................................................................................79
Aversions and Opportunities to Theorizing Rhetorical Disgust ............................82
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