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F.5.a.ii. Europe

Amery, Fram, Beyond Pro-life and Pro-choice: The Changing Politics of Abortion in Britain, Bristol, Bristol University Press , 2020, pp. 224

The author analyses the evolution of the political discourse on abortion from the 1960s to today, and argues that, in order to understand the changing elements in the contemporary abortion debate in Britain, it is necessary to move beyond viewing abortion politics as pro-choice or pro-life.
De Zordo, Silvia ; Mishtal, Joanna ; Anton, Lorena, A Fragmented Landscape: Abortion Governance and Protest Logics in Europe, New York and Oxford, Berghahn, 2016, pp. 304

Since 1945 European states have achieved increasing levels of economic integration, but their social policy have varied. This is particularly true for contentious issues such as abortion, where different political and religious institutions and social movements have produced very different policies. This book provides an interdisciplinary survey of the struggles over abortion rights. Drawing on national case studies from across the continent, it analyses the strategies and discourses of groups seeking to liberalise or restrict reproductive rights, from the immediate postwar era to the austerity politics, resurgent nationalism, and mass migration of today.
EERC, Parallel Report by the European Roma Rights Centre concerning the Czech Republic, European Roma Rights Centre, 2016, pp. 8

This Report describes the situation regarding one of the most serious human rights abuses of women – the practice of coercive sterilisation among Romani women – and the legal, policy and other obstacles in reaching an effective remedy for the victims.

See also Van der Zee, Renate, ‘Roma women share stories of forced sterilisation’, Al Jazeera, 19 July 2016.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/roma-women-share-stories-forced-sterilisation-160701100731050.html
Ostrach, Bayla, Social Movements, Policy Change, and Abortion Access in Catalunya, Anthropology Now, Vol. 10, issue 2, 0, pp. 1-11

Explores abortion access in Catalonia for immigrant women in particular, within a context of austerity and the movement for separation from Spain.
Rostagnol, Susana, Abortion in Andalusia: Women’s rights after the Gallardón bill, Antropologia, Vol. 5, issue 2, 2018, pp. 113-136

This article, which draws on fieldwork in Andalusia in 2015 and 2016, examines the general position on abortion there. It traces earlier history: before 1983, when abortion was illegal; and developments up to the 2010 law (passed by the Socialist government) which allowed termination of pregnancy in the early stages at a woman’s request. When the Conservative government under Mariano Rajoy introduced the very restrictive ‘Gallardon’ bill in December 2013, it prompted widespread and ultimately largely successful opposition, in which feminists were prominent. The author, who interviewed gynaecologists in public hospitals and certified private clinics, health service staff, and pro-abortion and feminist activists, examines the ‘discourses’ used in the debate over the Gallardon bill. She also assesses the impact of that debate on provision of abortion in Andalusia, with particular reference to the role of conscientious objection by medical staff and the stigma of abortion.