Expanding abortion access strengthens democracy, while abortion bans signal broader repression

Alison Brysk

October 28, 2024 4:30 am

Abortion is on the agenda not just in the United States but worldwide.

A majority of people in developed democracies increasingly favor abortion rights and self-determination. And, in most places, laws are shifting to reflect public opinion. Since 2020, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, among others, have legalized abortion. In 2024, France adopted the right to an abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” in its constitution.

At the same time, on every continent, some modern democracies are rolling back reproductive rights, among them Poland, Brazil and the U.S.

My new study, Abortion Rights Backlash, traces the relationship between abortion rights and democracy worldwide. Comparing progress in Argentina and California with the regression of Poland, Texas and beyond, I found that expanding abortion rights strengthens democracy, while restricting reproductive freedom weakens it.

Abortion rights are a test for democracy

Unsafe abortions kill or maim tens of thousands of pregnant people every year globally, and access to safe abortion is considered a fundamental right in international law.

The struggle for abortion rights, then, is a test for democracy. It signals whether citizens have control of their bodies and can influence decision-making on their fundamental rights.

This process has been playing out in the U.S. since 2022, when the Supreme Court ended federal protection for the right to get an abortion. Abortion has since been on the ballot in seven state elections, and in every case people have voted to protect reproductive rights.

A majority of Americans support legal abortion, and upcoming referendums in 10 more states are expected to reflect this democratic sentiment.

Argentina: A political and social movement

Argentina’s path to legalizing abortion in 2020 shows how mobilizing for reproductive rights builds democracy.

The Argentine abortion-rights movement, which began after the end of the country’s military dictatorship in 1983, bolstered the country’s most representative democratic institutions and increased women’s political participation. It also forged new forms of solidarity between marginalized groups.

Under Argentina’s ruling military junta, which was aligned with the Catholic Church, contraception and even divorce had all been banned. The country began steadily expanding women’s rights starting in 1985, when the newly democratic government signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a United Nations agreement obliging it to protect women’s rights.

Studies show that signing international women’s rights treaties lays the groundwork for reproductive rights, and Argentina was no exception. It legalized birth control and divorce in the 1980s, and in 1991 it established a congressional quota requiring that at least 30% of legislative seats be allocated to women.

Women steadily gained more influence in politics, a proven precursor to greater access to abortion. The rising number of women legislators in the Argentine Congress repeatedly moved to legalize abortion, proposing bills to Congress in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2018.

They all failed, but each successive version gained increasing support from legislators and from the Argentine people. The defeat of the 2018 legal abortion bill triggered massive protests, and progressive legislators responded by sponsoring days of hearings on abortion legalization. Representatives from women’s organizations testified movingly on the thousands of lives lost to unsafe, illegal abortions.

Beyond the political system, Argentine activists worked to forge strategic social coalitions.

They enlisted the country’s powerful unions and respected human-rights movements to their cause. These forces were essential to securing the 2019 victory of President Alberto Fernandez, who pledged to partner with Congress to deliver reproductive rights.

The abortion-rights movement also allied with Latin America’s influential movement to end gender violence and with the LGBTQ rights campaign of Argentina, which in 2010 became the first country in the region to recognize same-sex marriage.

To broaden their appeal beyond the capital city and professional women, the activists worked to engage rural areas and working-class voters. They emphasized the discriminatory impact of abortion bans.

“The rich abort,” they chanted at marches. “The poor die.”

In 2020, the Argentine Congress legalized abortion in Argentina as thousands rallied outside in the Plaza de Mayo. Many were wearing green bandannas, a symbol inspired by the white scarves worn by human-rights activists during Argentina’s military dictatorship. Braving the COVID-19 pandemic, the abortion-rights protesters turned their iconic green scarves into face masks.

Poland: Motherhood by any means necessary

In contrast to Argentina, Poland’s abortion clampdown illustrates how repression of reproductive rights correlates with rising authoritarianism.

In 2016, Poland’s conservative nationalist Law and Justice Party took power, pledging to restore “family values,” and then proceeded to undermine women’s rights and rule of law.

At the time, abortion was legal in Poland only when pregnancy threatened the life or health of the mother. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the ruling party presented legislative proposals that would eliminate these limited exemptions to Poland’s abortion ban.

The efforts stalled in parliament due to a combination of resistance from opposition parties and massive public outcry, with over 100,000 Poles turning out for street protests in 2016 and 2017 to oppose the proposed ban.

Law and Justice Party leaders solved the problem of democratic opposition by cutting the legislature and the Polish people out of the process.

In 2020, with public protest restricted during the pandemic, the Polish government filed a case with the constitutional court arguing to outlaw abortion under all circumstances. The court, stacked with justices loyal to the government, agreed. It ordered a total ban.

Since then, half a dozen women denied therapeutic abortions or abortion aftercare have died of sepsis in Polish hospitals because doctors, fearful of prosecution, refused them lifesaving surgery.

While it was clamping down on abortion rights, Poland’s right-wing government was attacking the civil liberties of other people. Security forces targeted doctors, raided women’s organizations and arrested activists. Gay people were declared a “threat to the Polish state.”

In 2023, centrist Donald Tusk was elected as Poland’s prime minister on pledges to restore human rights and the rule of law. So far, though, parliament and the courts have blocked his efforts to moderate Poland’s abortion ban.

Democracy in action

The evidence is clear: When abortion is legal, democracy thrives. And when reproductive rights are restricted, democracy withers. That same story is unfolding in the U.S. right now, state by state.

Following a successful 2022 abortion ballot initiative, California guaranteed reproductive freedom in its state Constitution. As in Argentina, this move was spearheaded by a strong women’s movement in the state Legislature.

By contrast, Texas has echoed Poland’s path. After shutting down access to abortion, the state restricted its citizens’ right to travel, further curbing civil liberties.

Mobilizing for reproductive rights expands democracy because it gives women voice and control over basic freedoms. The struggle for abortion rights shows society that the personal is indeed political – and that women’s lives matter.

This article was originally published by Ohio Capital Journal.