Over the past few years, due to recent politics, there has been a growing interest in abortion in the media, in academia, and in international organizations. We have witnessed attacks on abortion rights such as the overturning of Roe versus Wade in the United States in 2022. Furthermore, abortion is still forbidden or restricted in many countries, and 45% of abortions performed worldwide are considered unsafe (World Health Organization [WHO], 2024)[1]. In countries such as Switzerland, although abortion is authorized under certain circumstances in the first trimester of pregnancy, it is still regulated by the penal code, despite the recommendations of the WHO (2023) that abortion should be fully decriminalized[2]. However, feminists have also celebrated recent victories. For instance, in 2024 France became the first country to write the right to abortion in its constitution. In Latin America, in 2022, Colombia legalized abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
This workshop aims to stimulate international and interdisciplinary exchanges, and to open up new directions for research on abortion, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and reproductive justice more broadly. By bringing feminist, transnational and intersectional perspectives into conversation, experts will discuss the following questions:
What is the legacy of past feminist struggles for abortion care? What are the challenges pro-choice feminists currently face? Why and how is abortion currently criminalized? What do travelling for abortions and abortion pills tell us about reproductive violence and feminist resistance? What is the future of abortion politics?
This workshop gathers scholars from different disciplines (anthropology, sociology, history, gender studies, and geography), public health professionals and feminist activists. Various subjects connected to abortion politics will be covered: past and present feminist movements for abortion care in different contexts, the criminalization of abortion, transnational travel for abortions, gestational age timing politics, and self-managed abortion. This workshop will also be an opportunity for networking and collectively imagining a reproductive justice future for abortion politics.
This event is supported by the University of Fribourg and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
The event is free, but registration is required. Please register before the 31st of March (see below).
[1] WHO (2024). Abortion Key Facts. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion (Accessed 31.01.2025)
[2] WHO (2023a). Abortion care guideline. Common approaches to abortion regulation. https://web.archive.org/web/20240423120015/https://srhr.org/abortioncar… (Archived 23.04.2024).