Politicized Pregnancies: Abortion, Assisted Reproduction and Other Stories

Abstract

We know since the 60’s that the personal is political, including of course women’s reproductive lives. Still, some reproductive choices, in some historical contexts, are more political then others, meaning that they are subject to a closer state, religious, political, medical scrutiny. In this panel, we investigate abortion and assisted reproduction as way to understand how state (governance, institutions, public policies) and non-state actors (religious, medical, political ones) interact to shape women’s reproductive lives in the context of the economic crisis started in 2008, the neoliberal policies adopted globally and the emergence of very conservative political forces that have affected the legislation, social welfare system, and moral and gender regimes of many countries. The panel is build on qualitative and ethnographic case studies in Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Tunisia that try to understand, from below, the consequences of this context on women’s reproductive lives. It brings together scholars from British, France, Italy, Spain and Swiss Universities and Institutions.

Title	Details
When Pro-Life Activists Substitute the Welfare State. The Role of Pregnancy Crisis Centres in Italy	View Paper Details
Extending Fertility? Imagining and Regulating the Future of Reproduction in Switzerland	View Paper Details
Shifts in Abortion Governance in Italy and Spain: Obstetricians-Gynaecologists’ Perspectives on Abortion and Conscientious Objection	View Paper Details
Islamic Revival, Structural Violence and Women’s Right to Abortion in Tunisia after the Revolution	View Paper Details