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What Is the State of Reproductive Justice in Europe? Going Beyond the Pro-Choice and Legality Debate

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What Is the State of Reproductive Justice in Europe? Going Beyond the Pro-Choice and Legality Debate Reproductive Justice in Europe: What is the state of reproductive justice in Europe? Going beyond the Pro-Choice and Legality debate Master of Science in Political Science- International Relations June 26, 2020 Author: Mujinga-Clarisse Kombo (12545333) Supervisor: Dr. Franca van Hooren Second Reader: Dr. Afsoun Afsahi (Word count: 23 942 words) Acknowledgments I would like to thank my parents and my brother for their continuous moral support during my studies. I would also like to thank my friends who have made this a memorable experience. My gratitude also goes to my supervisor, Dr. Franca van Hooren, for her continuous help during the completion of this thesis. It was not easy, and some tears were shed in the process. Thank you to Dr. Afsoun Afsahi from the UvA and Béatrice Châteauvert-Gagnon from the University of Montréal, for introducing me to the field of Politics and Gender, it has been a life changing discovery, both on an academic and personal level. 2 Table of content List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………4 Tables…………………………………………………………………………..5 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................6 2 Literature review ..............................................................................................9 3 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................17 4 Methodology ....................................................................................................21 5 Availability ......................................................................................................26 5.1 Abortion on the EU level ...........................................................................26 5.2 Abortion laws in Europe ...........................................................................32 5.3 Typology of countries ................................................................................41 5.4 The political actors in the availability debate ..........................................42 6 Accessibility .....................................................................................................47 6.1 Barriers and obstacles to abortion ...........................................................47 6.2 Typology of countries ................................................................................66 6.3 Political actors in the accessibility debate ................................................69 7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................72 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...75 3 List of Abbreviations: CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CESCR Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ECHR European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EU European Union FRA Fundamental Rights Agency ICPD International Conference on Population and Conference IPPF International Planned Parenthood Federation MERJ Migrants and Ethnic Minorities for Reproductive justice NGO Non-governmental organization PFA Platform for Action PoA Program of Action RJT Reproductive Justice Theory SDG Sustainable Development Goal SRHR Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights UN United Nations 4 Tables: Table 1………….40 Table 2………….41 Table 3………….68 5 1 Introduction Even though abortion has been made widely available in Europe, it is still considered as a controversial topic. The debate is not only addressed in politics but also in numerous academic fields such as political science, international relations, psychology, sociology, law, human rights studies and medicine. The mainstream debate on abortion is today dominated by the pro-choice and the pro-life movements. Pro-choice adherents advocate for giving women the ability to control their own body, hence they do not oppose abortion and put the emphasis on women’s ability to have the choice whether or not to have an abortion. On the other hand, pro-life adherents consider abortion as murder, the murder of the fetus, who is considered a living human being from the moment of its conception. During the 1990’s in the United States of America, African American feminists claimed that the pro-choice movement did not take every woman into account and demanded for a more inclusive movement. This was the beginning of a new movement: the reproductive justice movement. Contrary to the pro-choice movement, reproductive justice considers itself to be more inclusive as it tries to take an intersectional lens to study reproductive politics and rights. Indeed, reproductive justice does not isolate abortion from other social justice issues such as “economic inequalities, immigrants’ rights, discriminations based on race or sexual orientation, age or disability rights” (Ross 2006, p.14). The goal is of this framework is to address the necessities of different groups of women and to place special emphasis on women who do not have access “to privilege, power and resources.” (Ross 2006, p.19). The criticism voiced against the pro-choice framework, is that not every woman has the choice to decide due to factors such as income, age and legal status that interfere in her decision-making process. Reproductive Justice theorists claim that the availability of abortion does not necessarily translate into accessibility for every woman. Since then, many American academics have dealt with the concept of reproductive justice that distinguishes between availability and accessibility when it comes to reproductive rights. Consequently, the debate on reproductive justice has been dominated by the American context and American politics. There is a gap in the literature when it comes to reproductive justice in Europe. Indeed, one can find isolated cases on reproductive justice in Europe, but there has been no systematic research on the topic. In Europe the debate on abortion is still heavily influenced by the pro-choice and pro-life division. Therefore, the European debate on abortion politics places the 6 emphasis on legality. Pro-choice adherents are in favor of the legality of abortion in Europe and pro-life adherents oppose the lawfulness of termination of pregnancy. At a time where many ask for more inclusiveness in society, the reproductive justice theory tries to include all the individuals in reproductive politics and give individuals from different backgrounds a seat at the table. The aim of this thesis will therefore be to go beyond the pro-choice and legality debate and to analyze the state of reproductive justice in a European context. Consequently, this research studies if the legality (availability) of abortion necessarily translates into its accessibility. Hence, my research question is: What is the state of reproductive justice in Europe? Furthermore, I have three sub- questions: What is the state of availability of abortion in Europe? What is the state of accessibility of abortion in Europe? Who are the actors in the political debate on abortion? To answer these questions, this research does a cross-national study of 14 European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Malta). The thesis will start with a literature review to give an overview of the academic contribution on the topic so far and show how this research will contribute to the existing literature. Then, the theoretical framework will present in more detail the reproductive justice theory. After the methodology, I will analyze the state of availability in Europe followed by an analysis of the state of accessibility of abortion in Europe. During the thesis I will show that even though abortion has been made widely available in Europe, this does not translate necessarily into its accessibility, specifically for vulnerable and marginalized groups. Indeed, there are several obstacles that obstruct women’s access to safe and legal abortion. The thesis will conclude with a discussion and try to pinpoint the most important elements of the thesis and emphasize on elements that need further research. Societal and Academic relevance Abortion is part of a wider concept called Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). In the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (UN, SDG n°5), Gender equality, one of the targets is to “ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of 7 their review conferences” (PoA, 1994). The United Nations therefore states that gender equality can only be achieved if all women have access to SRHR which entails universal access to contraception and abortion care. Furthermore, the conversation on the topic concerns almost everyone “directly or indirectly”: the legislators create and amend the abortion laws; the politicians are often judged on their stance on abortion; the voters will vote for politicians who defend their ideology concerning abortion; health-care workers decide on conducting or not the abortions and decide on the procedures to take; academics and activists can influence the policy-making process; and teachers and social workers are responsible for the sexual education of the society (Kaczor 2011, p.1). In the context of abortion, the concept of reproductive justice is also important, as it allows to take
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