09 March 2024
Enshrining Abortion Rights in the French Constitution
On International Women’s Day 2024, President Emmanuel Macron signed an amendment, that enshrines abortion rights in the French Constitution. Abortion is now a constitutionally “guaranteed freedom” for women in France: but constitutionally guaranteeing this freedom is also — if not even more — a call-out to the rest of the world. By constitutionalizing the right to abortion, French parliamentarians and government officials aimed to signal this commitment to the global community, with a particular emphasis on the United States. Continue reading >>
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08 March 2024
Tatsächliche Gleichberechtigung statt Blumen
Und wir stehen solidarisch mit den Frauen in der ganzen Welt, die noch immer für Gleichberechtigung kämpfen! Continue reading >>20 July 2023
Advancing Reproductive Rights
Spain has reached a significant milestone in the area of abortion legislation with a new landmark ruling by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Following a long-awaited renewal in January 2023, the court now consists of a progressive majority. Thirteen years after the complaint was filed by 60 congressmen of the conservative party, the ruling finally upholds the constitutionality of Organic Law (LO 2/2010) on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy. Departing from the previous indications model, the law allows women to have publicly funded abortions on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and up to 22 weeks (and in some instances without time limit) in cases of embryopathy and risk to the health or life of the woman. Continue reading >>16 February 2023
Small Country, Big Hurdles
Liechtenstein is far away from a comprehensive decriminalisation of abortion. The termination of pregnancy is still regulated by the Criminal Code and the person who performs the abortion will be prosecuted. Only the pregnant person acts legally when terminating an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. But it took until 2015 for pregnant persons to be granted a (limited) right to self-determination, and there is still a lack of sufficient legal, medical and social support. In a difficult and psychologically stressful situation, pregnant persons must seek treatment abroad – not because they want to, but because they have to. Continue reading >>
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08 February 2023
Für eine Zeitenwende im Abtreibungsrecht
Am Ende des Symposiums wird sichtbar: Abtreibungen zu kriminalisieren bildet im Vergleich zu den ausgewählten Ländern nicht die Regel (I.). Das bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass eine Entkriminalisierung jegliche faktischen Zugangshürden aus dem Weg räumt. Der Blick ins Ausland lohnt sich deshalb auch unabhängig von der Frage der Entkriminalisierung, um potentielle Fallstricke für die Versorgungslage zu analysieren (II.). Die Entkriminalisierung des Schwangerschaftsabbruchs bereitet jedoch, so legt der Rechtsvergleich nahe, den Weg, um strukturelle Hindernisse abbauen zu können. Eine bedeutende Rolle können dabei aktivistische Bewegungen spielen (III.). Continue reading >>
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08 February 2023
A Turning Point in Abortion Law
This blog post concludes the symposium “Comparative Legal Perspectives on Abortion”. The symposium traced the regulation of abortion and accompanying activist movements in Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Iceland, Northern Macedonia, Tunisia, South Africa, India, and South Korea. Now we want to turn our gaze from the outside back to the inside: What is to be gained for the German debate on abortion law? Continue reading >>
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07 February 2023
From Population Control to Reproductive Justice
On 11 April 2019, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the ban on abortion was unconstitutional. As a result, South Korea’s legislature had to revise its 66-year-old anti-abortion law by 31 December 2020. This historic decision was made possible in response to the advocacy of a number of feminist groups, doctors’ organizations, disability rights groups, youth activists, and religious groups in South Korea. Although the overall goal of reproductive justice movements was to change the law that threatened women’s health and lives through the criminalization of abortion, one of the main steps of the movements toward that goal was to challenge the previous framework of pro-choice versus pro-life. Continue reading >>
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06 February 2023
Still a right?
Although abortion in Tunisia has been legal for 50 years and offered for free in government facilities, the revolution of 2011 and the following democratization process have paradoxically put into question the access to this service. The Islamists’ victory and the conservative turn of local society in the 2000s have led to a step backwards in the domain of women’s rights including sexual and reproductive rights. Together with Turkey, Tunisia is the only Islamic-majority country that authorizes abortion for social reasons. Continue reading >>
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02 February 2023
A Global Milestone
In 2019, Iceland passed a new law on the termination of pregnancy. Passed with a solid majority and the support of a cross-political coalition, the new law provides pregnant people with the right to decide on a termination, without having to get prior permission from medical personnel, as had previously been the case. The law was a huge step forward to ensure the protection of sexual and reproductive rights in Iceland, but there still remains room for improvement, for example with regard to the rights of trans people and the access of uninsured people to the service. The success of the legislation was also remarkable for the cross-political support it enjoyed, largely based on women’s solidarity as 18 of 22 women in parliament, from nearly all parties, supported the law. Continue reading >>
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31 January 2023
The Long Road to Reproductive Justice
In North Macedonia, abortion law changes when the government does. The practices of the past years vividly demonstrate that abortion is not only a private matter but also a political issue. Depending on whether right or left-wing parties are in power, the law on abortion fluctuates between difficult-to-access and more liberal procedures. Continue reading >>
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