Sexual and reproductive rights and the human rights agenda: controversial and contested

Revisiting Polish Abortion Law: Doctors and Institutions in a Restrictive Regime

“…As illustrated in Table 1, the number of registered abortions performed officially by public healthcare providers is strongly correlated with legislative and regulatory changes (Girard and Nowicka, 2002; Nowicka, 2011). Except for a brief spike in registered abortions – linked to a short-lived re-introduction of the socio-economic indicator in 1997 16 – the number reached a record low of 124 terminations in 2001.…”

“…Much social science literature to date has emphasised the impact of conservative legal and political actors, at both national and international levels, on abortion practices (Enright and De Londras, 2018; Petchesky, 1984; Solinger, 1998; Yamin et al, 2017). Criminalisation and the so called ‘chilling effect’ of the law are often seen as primary factors constraining access to lawful abortion services (Nowicka, 2011). Researchers have attempted to account for physicians’ behaviour on historical and cultural grounds, including deeply rooted patriarchal structures, pervading paternalism and the importance of religious organisations in society (De Zordo, 2018; Hoff, 1994; Jankowska, 1991).…”

Criminalization of Women Accessing Abortion and Enforced Mobility within the European Union and the United Kingdom

“…Freedman & Isaacs, 1993). Under the supranational regime of the European Union, a further tension exists between internationally derived standards and nationally enforced laws, often steeped in customs and religions of individual nation-states (Nowicka, 2011). Women's bodily autonomy and reproductive autonomy remain curtailed and with them, as many activists vocally argue (Antoine, 2019;Penny, 2019), women's full citizenship rights (cf.…”

“…But as Desperak (2003) observes, due to the discourse incited around the Act, reproductive rights and reproductive health have become politicized issues, and the Act itself can be read as an ideologized (and further ideologizing) instrument aimed at controlling women's bodies. The previously applicable law of 1956, which allowed for abortion due to "difficult living conditions" but left unspecified the determinants of such hardship and resulted in a liberal application of the law, was thus presented in political debate as a remnant of a "Soviet-inspired" mentality (Desperak, 2003;Korolczuk, 2016;Nowicka, 2011). There is no space here to discuss the full implications of the abortion laws as post/colonial legacies, which in itself is a detailed and extensive topic, but it is important to note this layer within the discursive practices around abortion laws and notions of "nationhood," where national identity -and with-it citizenship -may be forged as an alignment or difference with a significant other's attitudes (cf.…”

Communities of faith and the global family planning movement: friends or foes?

“…In recent years, the dominant discourse within the family planning movement has moved to favor "sexual and reproductive health and rights," a construct that remains highly controversial within international institutions, and is typically defined as encompassing a set of norms that are on a direct collision course with a traditional Christian concept of the dignity of the human person, sexual morality, and the nature of the family. 27 Christian organizations engaged in international family planning work face a choice with important moral implications: navigate their own course in parallel to or sometimes in competition with organizations in the family planning movement, or engage to speak prophetically and help guide the movement away from abortion as a solution and amoral principles which are antithetical to Christian morality.…”