Rhetoric Society Quarterly Mar 2023

Florynce Kennedy’s Cultivation of Reproductive Expertise inAbramowicz v. LefkowitzandAbortion Rap

Emily Winderman ; Brittany Knutson

Abstract

This essay centers the legal and coalitional strategies of Black feminist Civil Rights attorney Florynce Kennedy in pre-Roe v. Wade abortion rights advocacy. Examining the depositional records of the 1969 case Abramowitz v. Lefkowitz and its subsequent distillation into the 1971 book Abortion Rap, we demonstrate how Kennedy’s rhetorical tactics enabled white women’s reproductive experiences to be intelligible—but centered—as expertise in the legal domain. Kennedy’s lines of questioning enabled feelings about unwanted pregnancies to become intelligible as expertise, challenging the authority of established experts. Kennedy impatiently leveraged her expert knowledge of the legal system to manage the state’s objections that threatened the well-being of witnesses and integrity of the case. While Abortion Rap appealed to the intersections of Black women’s reproductive concerns, it also hindered the possibility for coalitional trust to be built between legal experts and Black Power activists around abortion advocacy.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2023-03-15
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2022.2129758
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism gender and writing
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