Contemporary Abortion Policies and Anti-Abortion Campaigns

Cultural changes associated with secularization have made abortions legal in many democratic countries. Yet, despite what seems like a policy convergence, differences between states remain significant and abortions remain a controversial topic, and abortion a political taboo, as suggested by recent attempts to limit abortions. In this Workshop, we aim to study abortion-related policy debates, and particularly anti-abortion campaigns, the actors and institutions involved, strategies employed and overall impact. Particularly, we seek to understand anti-abortion campaigns within the context of morality politics and the rise of right-wing populism. Accordingly, this Workshop invites researchers for a comparative and theoretical study of anti-abortion campaigns and their relation to wider political struggles and debates. The legalization of abortion is part of the movements for gender equality and also the secularization of many societies (Bell, 1980; Chaves, 1994; Dobbelaere, 1981). Religion, however, proved resilient and re-emerged as a vital force in the new world political order (Inglehart and Baker, 2000; Hadden, 1987) and in anti-abortion campaigns. The first underlying question for this Workshop, therefore is: what role do religious values, actors, and institutions play in anti-abortion campaigns in secularized societies? As religion continues to play a role in public policy in secular and secularizing states, it often holds non-formal authority through affiliations with a moral order, as well as formal authority through the responsibilities allocated to religious institutions by the state (Heclo, 2001; Haynes, 1998). The second underlying question is: what role do the transformations of religion and religious authority play in fostering or hindering anti-abortion campaigns? Abortion remains a controversial issue that falls into the category of morality policy characterized as underscored by a fundamental, first-principled conflict for at least a significant minority of citizens, and involves the question of whose values are accepted by the state (Meier, 1999). The third underlying question is, then: how do different actors and institutions engaged in anti-abortion campaigns use the frame of morality policy in regulating abortion? Abortion invokes existential issues of life and death, and questions of rights and duties (Boltanski 2004). Consequently, abortion is one of the most visible and important examples of morality policy that involves conflicts over deeply held fundamental beliefs (Comobreco and Barnello, 2008). The fourth underlying question is, then: what are the arguments and repertoires, both religious and secular, in anti-abortion campaigns? The relation between rising populism and religious identity and values is of particular interest for the study of the anti-abortion campaigns and their ability to impact changes. Populism refers to a division between ‘the people’ and ‘others’ that must be filled with content, a moral claim and a clear definition of boundaries that can be maintained (Cohen and Arato, 2012: 102). Accordingly, some right-wing populist parties are associated with religiosity, social conservatism and the support of family values. The fifth underlying question is, then: what role does right-wing populism play in contemporary anti-abortion campaigns? In summary, this Workshop aims to combine theoretical questions of right-wing populism, religion and morality policy with empirical and comparative study of anti-abortion campaigns.