Abortion in the European Union : Actors, Issues and Discourse

A medical act with multiple social, psychological and emotional implications, abortion is a socio-political issue in its own right. Access to the right to abortion is subject to tension, opposition and conflict between different actors or ideas with sometimes extremely antagonistic positions.

While Europe is the continent where access to safe and legal abortion seems to be closest to international medical and health recommendations, authorities in several countries are challenging this access. In general, attempts to restrict access, whether successful or not, highlight the possible reversibility of the right to access abortion. As a result, the right to abortion remains a highly sensitive issue of public and political debate.

This book compares the legal regime of abortion in the different EU countries and the effectiveness of the right of access to abortion. Moreover, it traces the evolution of the political debate while drawing on the concrete example of Belgium. This examination highlights the extent to which the calls for the right to abortion and the institutional recognition of this right are shaped by various actors within national and international networks. The positions and framing of the issues by these ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ actors, including the Holy See, are carefully analysed.

The book also examines the discrepancy between the citizenship approach adopted by research on sexual and reproductive rights and the language of human rights used by activists to legitimise themselves as interlocutors in political deliberation and to justify their claims.

This book provides a comparative look at the discourses and practices of abortion rights across Europe.

Bérengére Marques-Pereira was a full professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles in political and social sciences until September 2011 and is currently a guest professor at the same university. She is a member of the METICES research centre (Migrations, Spaces, Work, Institutions, Citizenship, Epistemology and Health) of the Institute of Sociology. Between 2000 and 2003 she was president of the ABSP (the Belgian Francophone Political Science Association), where she founded the Gender and Politics working group. Her publications focus on women's social and political citizenship in Europe and Latin America, Latin American politics, and abortion rights.