Backlash or Widening the Gap?: Women’s Reproductive Rights in the Twenty-First Century

Dorota Anna Gozdecka

doi:10.3390/laws9010008

Abstract

This article examines legal challenges to women’s reproductive rights in Ireland and the United States, arguing that backlash against reproductive rights is a consequence of the long unsettled position of women’s reproductive freedom in liberal democracies and the catalogue of rights. It examines the legal foundations of reproductive rights and their perceived conflicts with other values, such as religion, and focuses on the current legal challenges to women’s bodily autonomy regarding choice and motherhood. It demonstrates the many contexts in which women have not acquired full reproductive freedom, and explores the nature of the current backlash. It argues that the nature of the backlash is not simply a reclamation of what has been legally guaranteed, but instead a deepening of the preexisting divides within reproductive justice globally.

Highlights

The topic of women’s reproductive freedom entered feminist theory discourse in the 1960s (Siegel 2007), though arguments for women’s reproductive freedom have been historically present in discussions on women’s liberation since the mid-1800s (Caron 2008)
Kasstan (2018) noted that the projected legal amendments replacing the ban include options such as the conscience clauses for physicians, allowing for the refusal of abortion for conscientiously objecting doctors and resulting in similar access issues as in the US. Both from the point of view of conscientious objectors (Donnelly and Murray 2020) and women seeking abortion, inclusion of such clauses is highly complex and has a potential to deepen the gap in reproductive justice: It is likely that refusal on the part of GPs to comply with professional obligations will be more pronounced in rural, isolated, and close-knit communities in Ireland, which could force women to migrate internally for access to abortion care
Women’s reproductive freedoms have always been subject to their fragile position among the broader rights catalogue. Despite their inclusion in CEDAW, their legal position has always oscillated between soft law, temporary legal gains, and subsequent challenges and setbacks

Summary

Introduction

The topic of women’s reproductive freedom entered feminist theory discourse in the 1960s (Siegel 2007), though arguments for women’s reproductive freedom have been historically present in discussions on women’s liberation since the mid-1800s (Caron 2008). It is with great dismay that current feminist theory approaches the rapidly evolving legal changes to women’s reproductive freedoms. Current challenges to long-fought-for legal guarantees, such as those encapsulated in the Roe v Wade judgment concerning access to abortion, are seen as a backlash and a fundamental turn in the approach to women’s rights. In this article I will examine historical and current legal challenges to women’s reproductive rights in Europe and the United States and argue that these developments are not a surprise, but rather a consequence of the long unsettled position of women’s reproductive rights in Western.

Influences on Women’s Reproductive Rights and the Notion of Backlash

International and Domestic Approaches to Reproductive Rights

Beyond the Abortion Debate

Conclusions