Women's Civil Rights and the Worldwide Liberalization of Abortion on Demand and for Socio-Economic Reasons

Many independent states liberalized induced abortion statutes between 1950 and 2011, while many others retained repressive ones. This project attributes these reforms to the legal recognition of civil rights for women - i.e. freedom of mobility, their rights to paid employment, property ownership an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSociological quarterly Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 87 - 120
Main Author Fernández, Juan J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berkeley Routledge 02.01.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Abortion
Acknowledgment
Civil rights
Employment
globalization
law
Liberalization
Mobility
Ownership
Property
Recognition
Reforms
Sex and gender
Socioeconomic factors
Statutes
Women
Womens rights
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Summary:Many independent states liberalized induced abortion statutes between 1950 and 2011, while many others retained repressive ones. This project attributes these reforms to the legal recognition of civil rights for women - i.e. freedom of mobility, their rights to paid employment, property ownership and justice. By broadening available life choices, civil rights recognition increases the opportunity cost of unwanted maternity thereby expanding women's resources for mobilizing support for abortion reform. Using a database of 195 independent states and event-history models, the study shows that countries where women enjoy more civil rights are significantly more likely to pass socioeconomic and on demand liberalizations.
ISSN:0038-0253
1533-8525
DOI:10.1080/00380253.2019.1711249