Julieta Lemaitre and Rachel Sieder Abstract Feminists and religious conservatives across the globe have increasingly turned to courts in their battles over abortion. Yet while a significant literature analyzes legal mobilization on abortion issues, it tends to focus predominantly on domestic scenarios. In this article, we consider the effects of this contentious engagement of pro-choice and anti-abortion movements in international human rights fora, asking what happens to social movement claims…
Pregnancies and Fetal Anomalies Incompatible with Life in Chile: Arguments and Experiences in Advocating for Legal Reform
Lidia Casas and Lieta Vivaldi Abstract Chile allows abortion under no circumstances. Whether it’s fetal anomaly incompatible with life or congenital malformation resulting in little or no life expectancy, all Chilean women are expected to carry their pregnancies to term. In this context, in January 2015 the Chilean Congress began debating a bill to legalize abortion on three grounds, including fatal congenital malformation. The medical community, including midwives, has presented…
Australia: Abortion and Human Rights
Ronli Sifris and Suzanne Belton Abstract This article adopts a human rights lens to consider Australian law and practice regarding elective abortion. As such, it considers Australian laws within the context of the right to equality, right to privacy, right to health, and right to life. After setting out the human rights framework and noting the connected nature of many of the rights (and their corresponding violations), the article shifts…
Australia: Abortion and Human Rights
Ronli Sifris and Suzanne Belton Abstract This article adopts a human rights lens to consider Australian law and practice regarding elective abortion. As such, it considers Australian laws within the context of the right to equality, right to privacy, right to health, and right to life. After setting out the human rights framework and noting the connected nature of many of the rights (and their corresponding violations), the article shifts…
Decriminalization and Women’s Access to Abortion in Australia
Barbara Baird Abstract This article considers the relationship between the decriminalization of abortion and women’s access to abortion services. It focuses on the four Australian jurisdictions which are, with Canada, the only jurisdictions in the world where abortion has been removed from the criminal law. This paper draws on documentary evidence and an oral history project to give a “before and after” account of each jurisdiction. The paper assumes…
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Exploring Legal Restrictions, Regulatory Reform, and Geographic Disparities in Abortion Access in Thailand
Grady Arnott, Grace Sheehy, Orawee Chinthakanan, and Angel M. Foster Abstract Despite decades of advocacy among Thai governmental and nongovernmental actors to remove abortion from the country’s 1957 Criminal Code, this medically necessary service remains significantly legally restricted. In 2005, in the most recent regulatory reform to date, the Thai Medical Council established regulatory measures to allow a degree of physician interpretation within the confines of the existing law. Drawing…
Macro- and Micro-Political Vernaculizations of Rights: Human Rights and Abortion Discourses in Northern Ireland
Claire Pierson and Fiona Bloomer Abstract How abortion is dealt with in law and policy is shaped through the multiple political and societal discourses on the issue within a particular society. Debate on abortion is constantly in flux, with progressive and regressive movements witnessed globally. This paper examines the translation of human rights norms into discourses on abortion in Northern Ireland, a region where abortion is highly restricted, with extensive…
Why is a “Good Abortion Law” Not Enough? The Case of Estonia
Liiri Oja Abstract There are various ways to critically discuss abortion. Constructing or finding the most suitable analytical framework—whether rooted in legal formalism, socio-legal considerations, or comparativism—always depends on the country of subject and whether the analysis is for litigation, advocacy, or more theoretical purposes. This paper offers a model for analyzing abortion in Estonia in order to connect it as a thought-provoking case study to the ongoing transnational abortion…
Continue reading “Why is a “Good Abortion Law” Not Enough? The Case of Estonia”
Why is a “Good Abortion Law” Not Enough? The Case of Estonia
Liiri Oja Abstract There are various ways to critically discuss abortion. Constructing or finding the most suitable analytical framework—whether rooted in legal formalism, socio-legal considerations, or comparativism—always depends on the country of subject and whether the analysis is for litigation, advocacy, or more theoretical purposes. This paper offers a model for analyzing abortion in Estonia in order to connect it as a thought-provoking case study to the ongoing transnational abortion…
Continue reading “Why is a “Good Abortion Law” Not Enough? The Case of Estonia”
Abortion Rights Legal Mobilization in the Peruvian Media, 1990–2015
Camila Gianella Abstract State and non-state actors engaged in disputes to expand and limit abortion rights have engaged in legal mobilization—in other words, strategies using rights and law as a central tool for advancing contested political goals. Peru, like other Latin American countries, has experienced an increase in abortion rights legal mobilization in recent years, including litigation before national and international courts. This paper centers on societal legal mobilization, or…
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