Search

Religious engagement can foster either democratic or illiberal views among adherents. Some religious institutions attempt to mobilize believers against abortion rights. For these believers, when does religion mobilize pro-choice protest participation? I test three pathways by which a prescriptive norm of pro-life protest participation might mobilize believers: general religiosity, hierarchical pressure from religious leaders, and pressure from fellow parishioners. Using semi-structured interviews with Polish anti-abortion organizers and an original, pre-registered survey experiment of Polish Catholics, I show that religiosity does not mobilize anti-abortion activism. Instead, religious group engagement powerfully drives pro-life protest. Hierarchical pressures from religious leaders and group pressures from fellow parishioners only increase the likelihood that believers protest against abortion for highly engaged parishioners, but not less-engaged parishioners. Further, religious group engagement levels fully mediate these relationships. Thus, hierarchical and social norms impact individuals' protest propensity to the extent that they are deeply embedded in a tightly knit social group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text examines the global movement against "gender ideology" and its connection to various political movements. It discusses how feminist and queer theories have challenged traditional notions of gender and sex, leading to a backlash from religious and political forces. The article explores the rise of the anti-gender movement worldwide, linking it to economic insecurity and populist rhetoric. It highlights the targeting of LGBTQ individuals, feminists, and gender activists as enemies of the state. The article also explores the role of social media in amplifying and spreading anti-gender sentiments. It concludes by discussing the resistance against the anti-gender movement, including a new wave of feminist and queer resistance that rejects elitist liberal feminism and embraces populism. The text emphasizes successful resistance strategies such as solidarity, coalition-building, and acts of care and kindness. It concludes with poems that highlight the power of art in creating a more feminist and queer future. [Extracted from the article]

As we emerge into a post-Roe landscape spurred by state-level "heartbeat bills," the stakes are high for rhetorical scholars to identify rhetorical topoi that have the capacity to intervene in legislative acts of reproductive injustice. Already, feminist rhetorical scholars have determined the rhetorical limits of topoi derived from legal, medical, and frameworks. Thus, I build upon Kelly Pender's "rhetoric of care" to theorize what I name reproductive justice rhetorics of care, rhetorical topoi that can advance reproductive justice (RJ). Importantly, I view RJ as a contingent telos -- not an analytic -- to which both radical (protest) and reform (institutional) rhetoric can contribute. I argue that Georgia state Senator Jen Jordan's dissent of HB 481, Georgia's heartbeat bill, offers three RJ rhetorics of care from within the constraints of institutional dissent: women as the fiduciaries of life, reproduction as an embodied process, and mother -- reclaimed and reframed. This analysis underscores the importance of identifying the rhetorical strategies invoked by state legislators to challenge reproductive injustice, given that abortion access will now be controlled by states post-Dobbs. Further, my analytical approach to finding topoi that move toward a contingent telos has implications for additional justiceoriented movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roe v. Wade was overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June 2022. The pro-choice movement, like the pro-life movement after Roe, has suffered a major legal loss after Dobbs and should learn from the pro-life movement's incrementalist legal strategies to slowly rebuild a constitutional right to abortion. Post-Dobbs, the pro-choice movement should pursue state constitutional level to create state constitutional rights to abortion. However, the pro-choice movement should also pursue incrementalist federal constitutional litigation in "hard cases," cases where women with life-threatening pregnancy complications are denied abortion care, to rebuild a federal constitutional right to an abortion. While a federal constitutional case for a right to an abortion may not initially translate into legal victories, such arguments can increase public support for the pro-choice movement by reframing abortion as health care and transforming public perceptions of the women who seek abortions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socio-political transitions prompt shifts in public sphere discourses on key issues (Krzyżanowski, Michał, Anna Triandafyllidou, and Ruth Wodak. 2009. 'Introduction' in the European Public Sphere and the Media: 1–14. London: Palgrave Macmillan.). Opportunities to change abortion legislation constitute examples of this in stimulating renewed debates around gender and human rights. Media discourses on abortion are worthy of study for their ideological role in transmitting messages and shaping public opinion. This comparative study investigates mainstream media discourses on the Irish referendum for the legalisation of abortion (May 2018) and a similar vote in the Argentine Senate (December 2020). Using the methodological approach of Discursive News Values Analysis (DNVA) (Bednarek, Monika, and Helen Caple. 2017. The Discourse of News Values: How News Organizations Create Newsworthiness. New York: Oxford University Press.), this article explores news values in media coverage leading up to and directly after the vote in the two countries. Both corpora demonstrated a shift in news values before and after the key events although this was more pronounced in the Irish context. Mainstream media news values in Ireland promoted legislative change overall while Argentine newspapers differed in their construction of news values reflecting their opposing positions on the proposed legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 2019 uprising and the launch of a Constitutional Convention, the dream of replacing the dictatorship-era constitution finally felt tangible, more than a perfunctory slogan lost in a sea of weather-worn posters and graffiti tags. (BREE JOHNSON, JUNE 2022) PHOTO (COLOR): A small group of neighbors wheat pastes Apruebo posters in a neighborhood at the southern border of downtown Santiago. I first saw a piece of street propaganda calling for a new constitution in late 2015, a few months after I moved to Santiago. [Extracted from the article]

This essay contrasts the reform rhetorics that were used to legalize abortion in the US with current anger-driven rhetorics surrounding abortion rights. Applying a materialist both/and feminist perspective it argues for the ethics and efficacy of the both/and rhetorical strategies used in the reform era. It suggests replacing the radical/reform dichotomy with a spectrum that prefers relatively broadening over more narrowing rhetorics. Current narrowing rhetorics envision large segments of the populace as enemies rather than as co-citizens who have legitimate interests that should be encompassed in the rhetorical frames that one offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Year After Legalization, Argentina's Abortion Activists Turn Fight to Unequal Access: The historic vote to decriminalize abortion was a landmark in the country and the region. Chants, signs, and songs repeated slogans such as "The rich abort, the poor die", emphasizing the unequal consequences of the criminalization of abortion. The National Campaign has also requested access to the abortion drug mifepristone, which would make the termination of pregnancy more accessible by enabling more at-home abortions. [Extracted from the article]

How can feminists use their institutional networks to block conservative anti-choice agendas? This question is of paramount importance, given the current context of backlash against gender equity in Latin America and around the world. To answer it, this article conducts a comparative and historically situated analysis of activism for and against abortion rights in Brazil and Mexico (2000–2018). Based on secondary information and in-depth interviews, we argue that the achievements of feminist activism go beyond policy approvals, encompassing a blocking function understood as the capacity to obstruct conservative opposition attacks. Comparison of two diverse cases (Mexico and Brazil) shows that simple "defeat versus success" parameters are not enough to understand the power of feminist networks in resisting conservatives. In order to do so, we need to incorporate an analysis of how feminists stop the advance of conservative agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, the abortion rights controversy has become the most prominent field of dispute between feminists and religious conservatives across Latin America. In this context, the political branches of government have generally been reluctant to change the region's restrictive legal frameworks around abortion. Since the mid-2000s, Latin American feminists have turned to the courts in search of long-pursued reforms in this field. Through an analysis of the role of constitutional courts in the liberalization of abortion laws in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, this study points out the diverse ways in which courts have contributed to the advancement of abortion rights, becoming alternative venues for feminist advocacy in Latin America. It highlights how courts have been used to liberalize abortion laws, ensure the implementation of existing abortion laws, and deter backlash processes. Furthermore, it details how courts have offered a platform for public debate on abortion. The study's findings show that the judicial system can be a favorable forum for feminist activism in Latin America when access to other institutions is blocked. The findings also add nuance to the critique of the use of courts for social change, which stresses the pernicious consequences of the judicialization of social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I defend a new solution to the problem of peer disagreement, the question as to how you should respond when you learn that your 'epistemic peer' disagrees with you about some issue (tomorrow's weather, the permissibility of abortion, the existence of universals). I consider four (familiar) test cases that together impugn every extant full-blown theory about peer disagreement. I present my own solution, show that it delivers the intuitive verdict in the test cases and address some objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 8 October 2014, the Northern Ireland Department of Justice (DoJ) set up a public consultation on amending the law on abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crimes. Several organisations mobilised to respond to the consultation, but pro-choice activists in Alliance for Choice-Derry (AfC-Derry) preferred to invest their time in popular education tactics aimed at the greater public. Why did these activists refuse to lobby politicians, as they have done in the past, and instead mobilise for awareness-raising actions? In this article, I argue that the gender-blindness of the post-conflict consociational settlement in Northern Ireland restricted activists' opportunity to lobby governments both at Stormont and Westminster. Activists thus shifted their approach to mobilisation: from lobbying to educational tactics; from extending UK's 1967 Abortion Act to decriminalisation; and from targeting politicians to targeting culture. This analysis of pro-choice activism under the gender-blind, consociational political system in Northern Ireland will shed light on theoretical questions of gendered political structure constraints on feminist actions as well as the development of cultural tactics by a "critical community" during a period of abeyance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like abortion, contraception, and guns, the debate over sex education policy in the United States is divisive and seems intractable. While ample policy research and analysis have focused on the former issues, less attention has been paid to the latter. This study begins to fill this gap through a thematic analysis of sixteen interviews conducted with a range of health policy and sex education experts. The study's goal is to explore conceptions of US sex education policy—contested issues, evidence use, and the narratives that influence policy formulation—in order to advance the discussion and ultimately improve sex education curricula. The author identified four common themes across these interviews: ultimate objectives, teaching approaches, views on teen sex, and limitations of evidence. These lend important insight into how experts and advocates frame the sex education debate, revealing stark areas of contestation as well as potential common ground. Such insights can inform deliberative inquiry to improve community decision making and guide collaboration among scientists, health professionals, advocates, and policymakers toward collective policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the argumentative schemas used in claim-making and the rhetorical resources for stance-taking in the online abortion law debate in Poland in late 2016. It shows how these discursive devices were used to divide and discredit the opponent in the social media by two social movements: the Stop Abortion coalition of conservative and religious organizations that sponsored the legislative proposal to considerably restrict abortion, and the Save Women committee that stood behind the 'black' protests opposing the project. The textual material is drawn from social media profiles of the two movements following a week of intense street protests and publicity activities (19–26 October 2016). It is subjected to contrastive argument analysis and critical discourse analysis of rhetorical resources. The analysis involves comparing (1) the discrepant premises underpinning arguments in the process of claim-making; (2) the reverse distribution of legitimization techniques deployed; and (3) the choices of name-calling devices aimed at discrediting antagonists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the relationship between the activism and later work life of young Mexican feminist activists in the context of social movements' institutionalization and the precarious employment situation. Using the biographical narratives of fifteen feminists in Mexico City who were core activists during the period of high mobilization of the abortion rights movement from 2007 to 2009, this study aims to answer two questions: How does activism impact contemporary activists' work life in an era of professionalized and institutionalized social movements? And how do their feminist identities and practices differ according to the workplace? The results reveal that (1) young feminists joined women's movement institutions through their activism, although those employment opportunities were unstable, and (2) they used reflexive strategies to manage their feminist identities amidst the uncertainty and to reconcile their work life conditions and their feminist activist identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Released in 2014 and 2015, respectively, the American indie films Obvious Child and Grandma each feature a central protagonist who is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and is pursuing an abortion. These pro-choice narratives not only challenge Hollywood cinema's repetitive depiction of unplanned pregnancies that result in motherhood, but they critique the dominant political and societal discourses surrounding abortion and women who choose to terminate pregnancies. Tracing the history of cinematic portrayals of unplanned pregnancy, and reflecting upon how post-feminist culture has positioned the notion of choice, this paper notes the significance of Obvious Child and Grandma as films that not only feature abortion as a central theme, but utilize comedy in their navigation of a controversial subject. Furthermore, this paper argues that in their frank and positive engagement with termination as a potential resolution to an unplanned pregnancy, these films offer important attempts to destigmatize the subject of abortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there have been calls in activist spaces to 'queer' abortion rights advocacy, to incorporate non-normative notions of gender identity and sexuality into abortion struggles and services. Argentina provides an interesting site in which to examine these developments, since there is a longstanding movement for abortion rights in a context of illegal abortion and a recent ground-breaking Gender Identity Law that recognises key trans rights. In this paper, we analyse public documents from the abortion rights movement's main coalition - the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion - alongside interviews with 19 Campaign activists to examine shifts and tensions in contemporary abortion rights activism. We trace the incorporation of trans-inclusive language into the newly proposed abortion rights bill and conclude by pointing to contextual factors that may limit or enhance the further queering of abortion rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Can Normalization Save Society-or at Least the Sociology of Deviance?" One of the critiques of the sociology of deviance has come from what Kitsuse ([4]) called "tertiary deviants"-individuals and movements objecting to their classification as deviants. Perhaps most sociologists would agree that it is better to remove disability, homosexuality, and abortion from the category of deviants as it is currently constituted. [Extracted from the article]

Elements of the sexual script acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of sexual media socialization have been tested in many recent studies. Two core suppositions of the model are in need of further examination, however. The first is the assertion that exposure to sexual media can affect behavioral judgments beyond the specific behaviors that are depicted. The second is the assertion that the mechanism driving this change is a shift in consumers' sexual scripts. This article probed these arguments within the context of pornography consumption and support for abortion using national panel data from two three-wave surveys conducted in the United States. As hypothesized, pornography consumption at wave one predicted a more a liberal sexual script at wave two, which, in turn, predicted more support for abortion at wave three. Following the reinforcing spirals model (RSM), the relationships between earlier support for abortion, subsequent sexual liberalism, and later pornography consumption were also examined. Supporting the RSM, abortion support was a prospective predictor of greater sexual liberalism, which, in turn, was a prospective predictor of pornography consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that corporeal sound, including the spoken voice and the auscultated heartbeat, can be understood as material rhetoric, and that material rhetoric, by extension, should be understood as both a force and a networked fluid. I illustrate this argument through the case study of abortion practices and policies, arguing that both mandated heartbeat auscultation and physician speech-and-display provisions represent the forceful fluidity of material rhetoric and demonstrate the power of such rhetoric to carve out networks of meaning. Through this networking, sound's material role in defining autonomy takes on a powerful role in debates over fetal personhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While activists often respond to claims advanced by their opposition, little is known about how oppositional rhetoric is evaluated. This study focuses on the evaluation process, examining how movement actors assess the resonant appeal of oppositional frames. I analyze how activists in the American pro-choice movement respond to a faction of the pro-life movement that primarily frames abortion as harmful to women. Drawing on focus group conversations with pro-choice activists, I find feminist collective identity and their own experience advancing gendered frames influence which oppositional frames pro-choice actors consider most likely to resonate with a non-activist audience. These judgments subsequently guide decisions about how to respond to oppositional frames and construct of counterframes. I find activists to use collective identity to rule out potential strategies and tactics they feel are in conflict with what the group represents. I argue that in cases where similarities exist between frames and counterframes, experience advancing rhetoric superficially similar to that of the opposing movement provides strategic insight. Movement actors draw on lessons learned from their own collective framing experiences to evaluate how audiences will respond to oppositional frames with comparable cultural themes. These experiences serve as a guide, informing activists' perceptions of the frames a non-activist audience will be most likely to embrace, which frames must be addressed, and which can be safely ignored. This study emphasizes movement actors' agency and strategic decision-making processes, demonstrates how collective identity influences the framing process, and contributes to knowledge of how group experiences and identity affect perception and strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the main innovations in the interaction between social movements and the state in Latin America since the democratisation processes is the use of courts as venues for social change and the intervention of social actors in constitutional politics. Drawing from the empirical study of the process of strategic litigation for abortion rights in Brazil, this paper aims to show what type of changes can take place when social actors set out to pursue a legal strategy on a highly controversial matter, and in a transitional context, where courts are in the midst of a redefinition of their institutional role in the political system, and movements have not yet been central actors in judicialisation processes. The study highlights how feminist organisations adapted their framing of the abortion issue and developed new alliances with legal actors in order to pursue a rights strategy and to interact with the constitutional court. It also points out how, when dealing with the abortion controversy, the Brazilian constitutional court (Supremo Tribunal Federal) expanded the legal opportunity for the participation of civil society actors and, in its 2012 decision that liberalised the abortion law, acknowledged the legal arguments advanced by social actors in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2007, after a period of intense social debate, the Mexico City Legal Assembly legalized abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which was an unprecedented development in women's rights in Mexico. Within the context of a proliferation of public discourses about women's citizenship rights changes in women's social status in Mexico, this article explores the extent to which the newlylegalizedcharacter of abortion is interpreted by womenas a right. Drawing on 24 interviews with women who had a legal termination of pregnancy between 2008 and 2009, this research shows that legalization opens up new and complex relationships between women as subjects of rights and the state. Such relationships are expressed as three discursive figures: legal abortion (1)as a concession from the government, (2)as ‘excessive’ tolerance by the state, and (3)as a right to be protected and guaranteed. The analysis shows that women's interpretations of the right to legal abortion are mediated by profound transformations, which Mexican society is currently undergoing. These include changes related to a shift from a clientist political culture to one more framed in terms of citizenship, the subjective effects of family planning policies, and their ambivalent relationships with Catholic notions of women and motherhood, and the effects of feminist discourses of women's citizenship, abortion, and reproductive rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abortion is the most common and controversial issue in many parts of the world. Approximately 46 million abortions are performed worldwide every year. The world ratio is 26 induced abortions per 100 known pregnancies. Pakistan has an estimated abortion rate of 29 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, despite the procedure being illegal except to save a woman's life. 890,000 abortions are performed annually in Pakistan. Many government and non-government organizations are working on the issue of abortion. Muslim jurists are unanimous in declaring that after the fetus is completely formed and has been given a soul, abortion is haram (forbidden). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do abortion providers determine how late in pregnancy they will provide abortion services? While law, training and socio-political factors likely play a part, this essay considers additional factors, including: personal and psychological aspects, visceral responses to the fetus and fetal parts at later gestations, feelings that second trimester abortion is violent, and ethical concerns with second trimester abortion. Providers may censor themselves with respect to these issues, fearing that honest acknowledgement of difficult aspects may be dangerous to the pro-choice movement; that is, such acknowledgements could appear to legitimise the anti-abortion stance that second trimester abortion is gruesome and morally unacceptable. I argue that this silence is harmful to providers, the pro-choice movement and the women who need abortion services. I make the case for pro-choice discourse that is honest about the nature of abortion procedures and uses this honesty to strengthen abortion care, including second trimester abortion. Comment les soignants qui pratiquent les avortements déterminent-ils jusqu'à quel stade ils accepteront d'interrompre une grossesse? Si la législation, la formation et les facteurs sociopolitiques jouent probablement un rôle, cet essai envisage d'autres facteurs, notamment de nature personnelle et psychologique, des réactions viscérales au fétus et aux parties fétales dans les gestations avancées, le sentiment que l'avortement du deuxième trimestre est violent, et les préoccupations éthiques qu'il suscite. Les soignants peuvent s'autocensurer car ils craignent qu'une prise en compte honnête de ces questions difficiles ne soit dangereuse pour le mouvement en faveur du libre choix, c'est-à-dire que cette reconnaissance paraisse légitimer le discours anti-avortement selon lequel l'avortement du deuxième trimestre est horrible et moralement inacceptable. J'estime que ce silence gêne les soignants, le mouvement pour le libre choix et les femmes qui souhaitent avorter. Je préconise un discours pour le libre choix qui aborde honnêtement la nature des procédures d'avortement et utilise cette honnêteté pour renforcer les services d'avortement, y compris au deuxième trimestre. Cómo determinan los prestadores de servicios de aborto hasta qué semana de gestación proporcionan servicios de aborto? Aunque la ley, capacitación y factores sociopolíticos probablemente influyen en esta decisión, en este ensayo se consideran otros factores, como los aspectos personales y psicológicos, respuestas viscerales al feto y las partes fetales en gestaciones más avanzadas, creencias de que el aborto en el segundo trimestre es violento e inquietudes éticas respecto al mismo. Algunos prestadores de servicios se censuran al respecto, temiendo que el reconocer abiertamente los aspectos difíciles podría ser peligroso para el movimiento pro libre elección: por ejemplo, afirmar que el aborto en el segundo trimestre es horripilante y moralmente inaceptable, podría interpretarse como una forma de legitimar la postura contra el aborto. Sostengo que este silencio es perjudicial para los prestadores de servicios, el movimiento pro libre elección y las mujeres que necesitan servicios de aborto. Expongo los argumentos a favor de un discurso pro libre elección, que sea sincero respecto a la naturaleza de los procedimientos de aborto y utilice esta sinceridad para fortalecer los servicios de aborto, incluidos los del segundo trimestre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media's attentive vigil over America's most militant and outrageous activists in the abortion wars has obscured a massive but quiet effort on the part of evangelicals to engage their opponents in exemplary deliberative discussions about bioethics. For a variety of reasons, activists in the pro-life movement are more committed to carving out civic spaces for such dialogue than are their pro-choice counterparts. This discrepancy invites investigation into the forces that promote and constrain political movements' interest in deliberation, as well as highlighting the undeniable limits to deliberative ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes how grassroots organizing diminishes the potential loss of reproductive services in communities affected by Catholic hospital mergers. The empirical contribution of this study is to highlight changing patterns of pro-choice social movement mobilization and approaches to conflict resolution in the reproductive rights arena. To discover how Catholic hospital mergers threaten access to reproductive services, five case studies based in diverse regional and demographic areas throughout the USA are developed. From the case studies, we analyze which organizational factors most strongly influence the preservation of services. Among the variables which may affect outcomes are: characteristics of the acquiring institution, the type of coalition created to terminate the merger, the failure of pro-life activists to counter-mobilize, incentives for compromise on both sides, and regulatory intervention by government or state action. The study concludes that this new phase of the abortion struggle represents renewed vigor among local pro-choice activists and demonstrates that grassroots coalitions who oppose the curtailment of services often preserve reproductive healthcare options in their communities by creating alliances with professionals and other coalition partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abortion was completely illegal in Portugal until 1984. Illegal abortion provision was a matter of silence until then and treated as a "black market" issue rather than as a health issue. The first attempts to change the abortion law began in 1982 after two trials and a national campaign for legal abortion and contraception. In 1984, the law was changed and abortion became legal on four grounds: risk to the woman's life, risk to her physical or mental health, fetal malformation and pregnancy resulting from rape. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Family Planning Association (APF), some women's organisations, trade unions, health professional associations and other NGOs came together to form the Right to Choose Platform. In 1993 a Report on the Abortion Situation in Portugal was presented to the Parliament and Ministries of Health and Justice, followed by public debates. In 1998 the law was changed to allow existing grounds to be applied beyond 12 weeks of pregnancy but bills and a referendum to make abortion available on request to 12 weeks of pregnancy were lost by a tiny margin twice in this period. At the end of 2001 the biggest trial on illegal abortion started in Maia, a small town in the north of the country, which had an immediate and enormous impact on public opinion. An increasing number of public opinion-makers, some prestigious health professionals and even the President of the Republic have recently declared that the law should be changed. The election of a right-wing parliamentary majority in March 2002, however, means that abortion law reform will again be postponed. Avant 1984, l'avortement était totalement illégal au Portugal. Les avortements clandestins étaient passés sous silence et considérés comme relevant du ≪ marchénoir ≫ plutôt que du domaine de la santé. Les premiers efforts pour changer la législation ont commencé en 1982 après deux procès et une campagne nationale en faveur de la lègalisation de l'avortement et la contraception. En 1984, la loi a été modifiée; l'avortement est devenu légal pour quatre motifs: risque pour la vie de la femme, risque pour sa santé physique ou mentale, malformation fœtale et grossesse résultant d'un viol. Au début des années 90, l'Association du planning familial, quelques organisations féminines, des syndicats, des associations de professionnels de la santéet d'autres ONG ont formé la Plate-forme pour le droit de choisir. En 1993, un rapport sur l'avortement au Portugal présenté au Parlement et aux Ministères de la santé et de la justice a suscité un débat public. La loi a été amendée pour permettre aux motifs actuels de s'appliquer au-delà des 12 semaines de grossesse, mais des projets de loi et un référendum pour rendre l'avortement disponible sur demande jusqu'à la douzième semaine ont échoué par deux fois à une faible majorité. Fin 2001, le plus grand procès sur l'avortement clandestin s'est ouvert à Maia, village au nord du pays, et a eu immédiatement un impact énorme sur l'opinion. Un nombre croissant de personnalités influentes, des médecins prestigieux et même le Président de la République ont récemment déclaré que la loi devait être changée. Beaucoup dépendra des prochaines élections en 2002. Hasta 1984, el aborto era completamente ilegal en Portugal. Era un tema que se mantenı́a en silencio y que se trataba como una especie de contrabando en lugar de una cuestión de la salud. Se iniciaron los primeros intentos de cambiar la ley de aborto en 1982 después de dos juicios y una campaña nacional a favor de la anticoncepción y el aborto legal. En 1984 se legalizó el aborto por cuatro causas: riesgo de vida de la mujer, riesgo de la salud fı́sica o mental de la mujer, malformación fetal y embarazo producto de una violación. A comienzos de los años 90, se juntaron la Asociación de Planificación Familiar, algunas organizaciones de mujeres, sindicatos, asociaciones de profesionales de la salud y ONG para formar la Plataforma para el Derecho a Decidir. En 1993 la entrega de un Informe sobre la Situación del Aborto en Portugal al Parlamento y a los Ministerios de Salud y Justicia fue seguido por debates públicos, y se cambióla ley para extender a más de 12 semanas de embarazo el perı́odo en el cual se permite el aborto por las causas ya establecidas. Sin embargo, en dos ocasiones fueron derrotados por pequeños porcentajes proyectos de ley y un referéndum que buscaban legalizar el aborto por petición durante las primeras 12 semanas de embarazo. A fines de 2001, en Maia, una pequeña aldea en el norte del paı́s, comenzó el juicio más grande por aborto ilegal, el cual tuvo un impacto enorme e inmediato en la opinión pública. Un número cada vez mayor de personajes influyentes, incluido algunos profesionales de la salud prestigiosos y hasta el Presidente de la República, han declarado últimamente que se debe cambiar la ley. Mucho depende de las elecciones próximas en 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 25 July 2001 the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning organised a Tribunal on Abortion Rights in Warsaw, to publicise the negative consequences of the criminalisation of abortion in Poland. A panel of Polish and foreign experts heard the testimonials of seven Polish women's experiences under the 1993 "Anti-Abortion Act". Only two of the seven women were able to tell their stories in person. One died in 2001, at the age of 21, of an unsafe abortion. One is legally blind after having carried her last pregnancy to term. One is in prison for infanticide, which in all likelihood was committed by her boyfriend. National and foreign journalists were in attendance, as well as observers from all walks of life – writers, students, mothers, activists, feminists, husbands. The evidence was clear and compelling. Restrictive abortion laws make abortion unsafe by pushing it underground, endanger women's health, create a climate where even those services that are allowed by law become unavailable, and contravene standards set by international human rights law. The restrictive abortion law in Poland has not increased the number of births; it has only caused women and their families suffering. The Tribunal brought the issue of abortion into the media prior to an election campaign and galvanised Polish and other Eastern European women's groups to become more active in defence of abortion rights. Le 25 juillet 2001 à Varsovie, la Fédération polonaise des femmes et de la planification familiale a organisé un tribunal sur les droits à l'avortement pour mettre en lumière les conséquences négatives de la pénalisation de l'avortement en Pologne. Un jury d'experts polonais et étrangers a reçu les témoignages de sept Polonaises sous la loi anti-avortement de 1993. Seules deux des sept femmes ont pu témoigner en personne. L'une est morte en 2001, à l'âge de 21 ans, d'un avortement non médicalisé. Une autre est devenue aveugle après avoir mené sa dernière grossesse à terme. Une autre est en prison pour un infanticide commis, selon toutes probabilités, par son ami. Des journalistes nationaux et étrangers ont assisté au procès, ainsi que des observateurs de tous horizons – écrivains, étudiants, mères, militants, féministes, époux. Les preuves étaient claires et éloquentes. La législation restrictive rend l'avortement dangereux en le forçant à la clandestinité, met en danger la vie des femmes, crée un climat où même les services autorisés par la loi deviennent indisponibles, et enfreint les normes internationales des droits de la personne. Cette législation n'a pas augmenté le nombre de naissances en Pologne. Elle a seulement fait souffrir les femmes et leurs familles. Le tribunal a porté la question de l'avortement dans les médias avant une campagne électorale et a encouragé les groupes de femmes polonaises et d'autres pays d'Europe de l'Est à devenir plus actifs dans la défense des droits à l'avortement. El 25 de julio de 2001 en Varsovia, la Federación Polaca de la Mujer y la Planificación Familiar organizó un Tribunal sobre el Derecho al Aborto para dar a conocer las consecuencias negativas de la criminalización del aborto en Polonia. Un panel de expertos polacos y extranjeros oyeron testimonios de las experiencias de siete mujeres polacas bajo el "Acta Anti-aborto" de 1993. Solamente dos de las siete mujeres pudieron contar sus historias en persona. Una de ellas falleció en 2001, a la edad de 21 años, de un aborto malhecho. Otra quedó legalmente ciega después de haber llevado su último embarazo a término. Otra está presa por infanticidio, del cual a todas luces fue responsable su novio. Asistieron periodistas nacionales y extranjeros, además de observadores diversos – escritores, estudiantes, madres, activistas, feministas, esposos. Las pruebas eran claras y convincentes. Las leyes de aborto restrictivas hacen que el aborto sea un riesgo al relegarlo a la clandestinidad. Por lo mismo, ponen en peligro la salud de la mujer, crean un clima en el cual hasta los servicios que son permitidos no son disponibles, y contravienen las normas establecidas por las leyes de derechos humanos internacionales. La ley de aborto restrictivo en Polonia no ha aumentado el número de nacimientos; solo ha causado el sufrimiento de las mujeres y sus familias. Gracias al Tribunal, el tema del aborto apareció en los medios de comunicación previo a una campaña electoral y motivó a los grupos de mujeres polacas y de Europa Oriental a movilizarse en defensa del derecho al aborto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women on Waves was founded to contribute to the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortions throughout the world by direct action. Because national penal laws, including those governing abortion, generally extend only as far as territorial waters (12 miles), Women on Waves made plans to provide reproductive health services on a ship with a mobile clinic, including abortions, outside the territorial waters of countries where abortion is illegal. We went to Ireland first because it was nearby and there was a dedicated pro-choice community with immediate interest in and commitment to the project. Although we encountered problems that meant we could not do abortions, we were contacted by more than 300 women in five days and provided reproductive health information, contraception, workshops and information on where to obtain legal abortions in Europe. In many parts of the world an anti-abortion backlash is taking place. To safeguard our reproductive rights in the face of anti-abortion activities, it is crucial to recapture a pro-active, pro-choice role. Women on Waves helped to make visible the need for legal abortion services in Ireland, and the extensive class and other differences between women able to access abortions abroad and those who could not. We are currently attempting to resolve our status under Dutch law, but until women everywhere have the right to reproductive freedom, we will continue to make waves. L'association ≪ Women on Waves ≫ souhaite prévenir par l'action directe les grossesses non désirées et les avortements à risque. L'association fournit des services de santé géné sique, y compris des avortements, sur un bateau-clinique hors des eaux territoriales des pays où l'avortement est illégal. Le bateau s'est d'abord rendu en Irlande en raison de la proximité et parce qu'il y avait une forte communauté favorable à l'avortement intéressée par le projet. Malgré les problèmes qui nous ont empêchés de mener des avortements, nous avons été contactés par plus de 300 femmes en cinq jours et nous avons donné des informations sur la santé génésique et la contraception, organisé des ateliers et renseigné sur les avortements légaux en Europe. Women on Waves (Mujeres sobre las olas) fue creado para contribuir a la prevención del embarazo no deseado y el aborto inseguro en todo el mundo por medio de la acción directa. Women on Waves hizo planes para proveer servicios de salud reproductiva, incluido el aborto, en un barco equipado con una clı́nica móvil fuera de las aguas territoriales de los paı́ses donde el aborto es ilegal. Fuimos primero a Irlanda porque nos quedaba cerca y porque allı́ habı́a una comunidad dedicada al derecho a decidir con un interés inmediato y el proyecto. A pesar de en dificultades que significaban no poder proveer servicios de aborto, nos contactaron más de 300 mujeres en cinco dı́as, y proporcionamos información de salud reproductiva, anticoncepción, talleres e información acerca de lugares en Europa donde se puede obtener un aborto legalmente. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines responses to antiabortion picketing among women who encountered picketers as they entered 1 of 3 abortion clinics to have an abortion. The goals of this study are to describe women's experiences with, emotional reactions to, and attitudes toward antiabortion picketers; examine predictors of women's emotional responses to picketers; and examine the relations among exposure to picketers and emotional responses to picketers and postabortion mental health. Results indicated that most women encountered antiabortion picketers on clinic entry and experienced negative emotions in response. Women were more likely to feel angry than guilty in response to seeing picketers. Reports of positive emotions were rare. Women whose entry was blocked by picketers were more likely to experience both anger and guilt in response to picketers. Women who were personally conflicted about abortion were more likely to experience guilt, but not anger, in response to picketers. Feeling guilty in response to seeing picketers and being high in personal conflict about abortion were significant predictors of depression immediately postabortion. Feeling angry in response to picketers was unrelated to postabortion mental health. In general, women seemed to find encounters with picketers unpleasant and to be negatively affected by them in the short term but not to suffer serious, long-term, negative psychological effects as a result of these encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effect of a high- versus low-credibility sponsor on the perceived credibility of an abortion-related message. Three groups of subjects read a message that had been evaluated as "neutral" by officials of both "pro-life" and "pro-choice" groups. Sponsorship of the message was varied among the three groups (no sponsor; pro-life sponsor; pro-choice sponsor). Subjects rated the credibility of the message and credibility of the sponsor and also indicated their own attitudes toward abortion. Pro-life and pro-choice subjects did not differ in their perception of the nonsponsored message. The signature of a high-credibility sponsor improved the message's perceived credibility; however, the signature of a low-credibility sponsor did not diminish the message's credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All organizations filing amicus briefs in 18 Supreme Court cases and testifying at 23 congressional hearings on abortion are classified to test these five hypotheses on coalition-building regarding moral conflicts: (1) only interests directly affected will be activated; (2) single-issue groups will dominate; (3) economic interests are not involved; (4) coalition-building is more extensive by advocates of social change; and (5) group conflict will focus primarily on the judicial branch. All these hypotheses, extensions of the policy paradigm developed by Theodore J. Lowi, were validated. It was also found that the pro-choice coalition has changed, with groups representing women the most important constituency today whereas in the 1970s the more salient organizations were health care providers. And while both sides lobby the Court more than Congress, abortion opponents devote more attention to the legislature, indicating that the "institutional" scope of conflict will shift between these policy arenas depending on the receptivity of each branch to pro- or anti-abortion arguments. We suggest that policy analysis would be enrichened by studying process variables (not simply policy types) and that the critical variable is the "political" scope of conflict as measured by the number, variety, and type of interest groups involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the position of supporters and opposers of abortion in the U.S. society. Focus of abortion studies in the U.S.; Commonalities in some assumptions of supporters and opposers; Forms of vilification of opposers of abortion by its supporters; Methods adopted by opposers of abortion to malign its supporters; Consequences of such vilification for the abortion movement in the U.S.

In measuring public opinion about controversial issues, pollsters strive for balanced and comprehensive coverage of the subject. This type of coverage may be undermined, however, when one perspective of the issue tends to predominate in society. This point is illustrated by a review of questions major pollsters asked about the abortion issue over an eight-year period. The data suggest that in querying the public about abortion rights, in describing the legal and empirical realities of the abortion situation and in seeking the public's reaction to abortion politics and policy, pollsters tended to reflect the dominant pro-choice perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]