ABSTRACT
The chapter unravels the women's subjective reflections on their intimate lives and their decisions to undergo an abortion. It captures the women's voices and examines how their pursuit of a “complete life”, which follows the order of dating, marriage, and childbearing, was built on various sociocultural presumptions, economic constraints, and life aspirations. The chapter explains how structural forces are intertwined to encourage, at the same time, constrain young women's life alternatives and shape their goal for a “complete life” – to become not only a responsible citizen but also a competitive worker, a good mother, a filial daughter, and an aspiring individual. The findings reveal how individuals’ subject-making projects are composed of and promulgated by the state's modernization agenda, which was realized under a symbiotic yet hierarchical relationship between the self and the state.
