Rebecca Lentjes

This project explores the overlooked weaponization of sound that the United States antiabortion movement uses to enact systemic violence against pregnant people, and the author’s proposed “auditory ethnography” focuses specifically on the Southeast as a region that has been disproportionately impacted by antiabortion politics and policies. Everyday auditory harassment, such as clinic protests and mandatory ultrasound testing, perpetrates gendered sonic violence that is unexamined and underestimated in its power to assert fetal rights at the expense of pregnant people’s rights and health. This research examines amplified protests at abortion clinics, music in right-wing propaganda, and “fetal heartbeat” bans that rob pregnant people of their bodily autonomy. Using cultural analysis, musical analysis, and participant observation ethnography at multiple abortion clinics, this project delves into the ramifications of the antiabortion movement’s arsenal of sonic weaponry, and the author advocates for scholarship, legislation, and activism that addresses these ramifications.