Abortion caringscapes: female homosociality and reproductive healthcare in post-one-child China

The gender backlash intensified by reactionary politics and the heteronormative pronatalism resulting from fertility decline have posed increased challenges to reproductive justice, particularly threatening abortion rights. This study draws on the care literature and years of fieldwork on abortion in China and introduces the concept of ‘abortion caringscapes’ – the multidimensional terrain of care activities across time and space, in which women obtain, practice, and reciprocate informal care – to envision alternative abortion-related care in the pursuit of bodily autonomy. It focuses on non-kin female homosocial bonds, often-neglected care relations in the abortion context, in enhancing women’s reproductive autonomy and well-being. The findings illustrate this concept in three contexts: a non-profit clinic, peer groups, and virtual communities, where women proactively cultivated homosocial care relations during their abortion journeys. Theoretically, the study contributes to the abortion literature by conceptualizing informal care activities among non-kin networks across time and space. Practically, it highlights the practice of abortion-related care beyond bureaucratic institutions at interpersonal and collective levels, identifying pivotal sites of care and resistance under state biopolitical governance.