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Women Matter: The Impact of Gender Empowerment on Abortion Regulation in 16 European Countries between 1960 and 2010

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2016

Emma Budde  and
Stephan Heichel
Emma Budde
Affiliation:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Stephan Heichel
Affiliation:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
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Extract

Abortion is undeniably a gender issue—even if not an exclusive one (e.g., Mazur 2002, 137–153; Warren 2000, 201–223. Due to a woman's physical reproductive capacities and, even more so, the patriarchal allocation of care work, members of the female sex bear by far the larger share of all burdens that come with pregnancy and especially unwanted pregnancy—be they physical, emotional, economic, life-course related, or other (England 2001; Tribe 1992, 106). For the longest time in history and across most societies and cultures, women were denied rights to make autonomous decisions in terms of whether and when to procreate, which is in one core aspect of bodily self-determination (Corrêa 2001; Staggenborg 2001).

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Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 432 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

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