Abstract
How does the globalization of abortion affect access to reproductive rights worldwide? Abortion norms, movements, medications, and migrants cross borders to an unprecedented degree in an era of increasing contestation of abortion policy. While human rights advocacy is depicted as inherently transnational, population politics were historically seen as the domain of state regulation and a Church-state struggle contested by national women’s movements. Yet 21st century abortion liberalization and backlash have become a globalized “three-level game”, and “the personal is global”. The globalization of reproductive rights norms and networks in a domestic and private policy area fosters transnational mobilization, policy diffusion, reshapes rights repertoires, and “deviant globalization” that evades state regulation. We will trace the impact of the globalization of abortion on reproductive rights access through the Green Wave of transnational mobilization in Latin America; “circumvention migration” in Central Europe; and medication networks in North America. Transnational and extra-territorial abortion actors and practices shift authority and identity relations, and create new channels of access to reproductive rights through mobile clinics, self-managed care, accompaniment movements, solidarity supply chains, cross-border referral networks, and resource flows.
Presenters
Alison BryskDistinguished Professor, Global Studies and Political Science, University of California Santa Barbara, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—The World on the Move: Understanding Migration in a New Global Age
KEYWORDS
Human Rights, Gender, Migration, Reproductive Rights, Transnational Movements
