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Since World War II, abortion policies have remained remarkably varied across European nations, with struggles over abortion rights at the forefront of national politics. This volume analyses European abortion governance and explores how social movements, political groups, and individuals use protests and resistance to influence abortion policy. Drawing on case studies from Italy, Spain, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Union, it analyses the strategies and discourses of groups seeking to liberalise or restrict reproductive rights. It also illuminates the ways that reproductive rights politics intersect with demographic anxieties, as well as the rising nationalisms and xenophobia related to austerity policies, mass migration and the recent terrorist attacks in Europe.
List of contents
Introduction Silvia De Zordo, Joanna Mishtal, and Lorena Anton PART I: PRO-ABORTION RIGHTS ACTIVISM, MOVEMENTS, STRATEGIES, AND PROTEST LOGICS Chapter 1. Legal and Political Discourses on Women's Right to Abortion
Christina Zampas Chapter 2. Freeing Abortion in Sweden
Annulla Linders and Danielle Bessett Chapter 3. Women's Liberation and the 'Right to choose': Struggling for Abortion in the United Kingdom and Switzerland
Kristina Schulz and Leena Schmitter PART II: ANTI-ABORTION RIGHTS ACTIVISM, MOVEMENTS, STRATEGIES, AND PROTEST LOGICS Chapter 4. Contesting Abortion Rights in Contemporary Italy: Discourses and Practices of Pro-life Activism
Claudia Mattalucci Chapter 5. Innocence and Demographic Crisis: Transposing Post-Abortion Syndrome into a Russian Orthodox Key
Sonja Luehrmann Chapter 6. Still a Woman's Right? Feminist and Other Discourses in Belgium's Abortion Struggles
Karen Celis and Gily Coene PART III: HEALTH PROFESSIONALS'/PROVIDERS' INVOLVEMENT IN THE PRO- OR ANTI-ABORTION RIGHTS DEBATE AND ACCESS TO SERVICES Chapter 7. 'Good doctors do not object': Obstetricians-Gynaecolosists' Perspectives on Conscientious Objection to Abortion Care and their Engagement with Pro-abortion Rights Protests in Italy
Silvia de Zordo Chapter 8. Women Rights or Unborn Rights? Laws and Loopholes In Madrid's Public Healthcare Services Abortion Provision to Migrant Women
Beatriz Martín Aragón Chapter 9. One Step Forward and Two Steps Back: Accessing Abortion in Norway
Mette Løkeland PART IV: PRONATALISM, NATIONALISM, AND RESISTANCE IN ABORTION POLITICS AND ACCESS TO ABORTION SERVICES Chapter 10. For the Good of the Nation: Pronatalism and Abortion Ban during Ceausescu's Romania
Lorena Anton Chapter 11. Quietly 'Beating the System': The Logics of Protest and Resistance under the Polish Abortion Ban
Joanna Mishtal Chapter 12. Abortion Governance in the New Northern Ireland
Robin Whitaker and Goretti Horgan Afterword: Reproductive Governance meets European Abortion Politics: The Challenge of Getting the Gaze Right
Lynn M. Morgan Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
About the author
Lorena Anton is a Marie Curie Fellow in social anthropology at the University of Bucharest (2013-2017), where she develops a project on abortion governance in post-communist Romania. Recent publications include 'On n'en parlera jamais de tout ça! Ethnographier la mémoire de l'avortement en Roumanie de Ceaüescu', in
Ethnologie Française (2014) and the 'Cultural Memory' entry in
Protest Cultures: A Companion (eds. Fahlenbrach et al., Berghahn Books).
Summary
Since World War II, abortion policies have remained remarkably varied across European nations, with struggles over abortion rights at the forefront of national politics. This volume analyses European abortion governance and explores how social movements, political groups, and individuals use protests and resistance to influence abortion policy. Drawing on case studies from Italy, Spain, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Union, it analyses the strategies and discourses of groups seeking to liberalise or restrict reproductive rights. It also illuminates the ways that reproductive rights politics intersect with demographic anxieties, as well as the rising nationalisms and xenophobia related to austerity policies, mass migration and the recent terrorist attacks in Europe.
