Reimagining Global Abortion Politics: A Social Justice Perspective

174 Pages·2019·1.631 MB·English

by  Fiona Bloomer, Claire Pierson, Sylvia Estrada Claudio

G
l
o
“A timely and important book on a significant development
b
in city governance and regional leadership; everything you a
l

need to know about directly elected mayors.” p
e
Keith Grint, Professor of Public Leadership, Warwick Business r
s
School, UK p
HB PPC e
c Fiona Bloomer, Claire Pierson
t
i
v
Directly elected mayors are political leaders who are selected e and Sylvia Estrada Claudio
s
directly by citizens and head multi-functional local government
o
authorities. This book examines the contexts, features and f

g
debates around this model of leadership, and how in practice Reimagining
e
political leadership is exercised through it. n
d
e
The book draws on examples from the Europe, the US and
r
Australasia to examine the impacts, practices and debates of e global
d
mayoral leadership in different cities and countries. Themes
y
that recur throughout include the formal and informal powers o
u
that mayors exercise, their relationships with other actors
t abortion
in governance – both inside municipalities and in broader h

governance networks – and the advantages and disadvantages m
of the mayoral model. Both qualitative and quantitative i
g
politics
approaches are used to build a picture of views of and on r
a
directly elected mayors in different contexts from across t
i
the globe. o
n

This book will be a valuable resource for those studying or A social justice perspective

researching public policy, public management, urban studies,

politics, law and planning. E
d
i
t
e
d
b
David Sweeting is Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies at the University y
G
of Bristol, UK.
l
e
n
d
a
T
i
b
e
B
o
n
i
f
a
c
i
o
www.policypress.co.uk
PolicyPress @policypress
REIMAGINING GLOBAL
ABORTION POLITICS
A social justice perspective
Fiona Bloomer, Claire Pierson
and Sylvia Estrada Claudio
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by

Policy Press North America office:
University of Bristol Policy Press
1-9 Old Park Hill c/o The University of Chicago Press
Bristol 1427 East 60th Street
BS2 8BB Chicago, IL 60637, USA
UK t: [phone]
t: [phone] f: [phone]
[email protected] [email protected]
www.policypress.co.uk www.press.uchicago.edu

© Policy Press 2019
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 978-1-4473-4043-0 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-4473-4044-7 ePDF
ISBN 978-1-4473-4046-1 ePub
ISBN 978-1-4473-4047-8 Mobi
The right of Fiona Bloomer, Claire Pierson and Sylvia Estrada Claudio to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise without the prior permission of Policy Press.
The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the authors
and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press. The University of Bristol and Policy
Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material
published in this publication.
Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race,
disability, age and sexuality.
Cover design by Hayes Design
Front cover image: www.emmacampbell.co.uk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd,
Croydon, CR0 4YY
Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners
This book is dedicated to the thousands
who lost their lives, to those whose lives
have been impacted by poor access to
abortion and to all those who have fought
for abortion access.
Contents
Glossary v
Notes on the authors vii
Acknowledgements ix
one Introduction 1
two Criminalisation 11
three The biomedicalisation of abortion 31
four Abortion discourses: religion, culture, nation 51
five International interventions 69
six Activism 87
seven Is choice enough? Engaging with reproductive justice 107
eight Conclusion 127
References 133
Index 155
iv
Glossary
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women
ECHR European Convention on Human Rights
ECtHR European Court of Human Rights
ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
ICWRSA International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe
Abortion
IPPF International Planned Parenthood Federation
UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights
WHO World Health Organization
WOW Women on Web
v

Notes on the authors
Fiona Bloomer, Ulster University, Lecturer in Social Policy.
Dr Bloomer’s research centres on reproductive health, with a particular
focus on abortion policy and abortion stigma. She is currently a co-
investigator on a Global Challenges Research Fund seed fund project,
‘Tackling Girls and Young Women’s Reproductive Health through
a Reproductive Justice Framework in the Philippines and South
Africa’, and in 2017 completed a groundbreaking study on abortion
as a workplace issue.
Dr Bloomer’s research findings have been published in international
journals including Culture, Health and Sexuality, Health and Human
Rights, Critical Social Policy, Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, and
Race Ethnicity and Education. She is co-editor of a collection of papers
published in 2018 exploring access to abortion in Ireland (north and
south) and Prince Edward Island (Canada). She has secured funding
awards from the British Academy, the Open Society Foundation,
ACSONI/ROSA Foundation, Department for the Economy,
and Unite the Union. Dr Bloomer is a founding member of the
Reproductive Health Law and Policy Advisory Group, and a member of
RAARN, the Reproductive Activism and Abortion Rights Network,
a global network of academics and activists. Twitter: @DrBloomer
Claire Pierson, University of Liverpool, Lecturer in Politics.
Dr Pierson’s research focuses on the UN women, peace and security
agenda; conflict transformation; and reproductive rights and activism.
She is currently a co-investigator on the project ‘Tackling Girls and
Young Women’s Reproductive Health through a Reproductive Justice
Framework in the Philippines and South Africa’, and a unique research
project funded by a coalition of Irish trade unions, addressing ‘Abortion
as a workplace issue on the island of Ireland’. Claire is co-founder of
the Reproductive Health Law and Policy Advisory Group (https://
reproductivehealthlawpolicy.wordpress.com). She has published in
journals including The British Journal of Politics and International Relations,
Parliamentary Affairs, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, and
Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. Prior to working in academia, Claire
worked for the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Institute for Conflict
Research (Belfast) and the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring
Group (Jerusalem).
vii
Reimagining global abortion politics
Sylvia Estrada Claudio, Dean of the College of Social Work and
Community Development (CSWCD), University of the Philippines,
Professor of the CSWCD’s Department of Women and Development
Studies.
Dr Claudio is a doctor of medicine who also holds a PhD in
Psychology. She is a graduate of the University of the Philippines
College of Medicine and earned her PhD in Philippine Psychology
from University of the Philippines Diliman. She also did a postgraduate
research fellowship at the University of Amsterdam in 1990.
She is the author of several publications, including the books Rape
love and sexuality: The construction of women in discourse (UP Press, 2002)
and And then she laughed: Counseling women (Anvil Press, 2015).
She considers herself an engaged academic because she has spent
most of her life working in the Philippine and international social
movements. She started in her teens when she was part of the
underground movement against the Marcos dictatorship. Her longest-
standing major engagement is that she is co-founder, and now Chair,
of the Board of Directors of Likhaan, an organisation working with
grassroots women on issues of reproductive and sexual health and rights.
She is also a member of the Philippine Psychological Association’s
LGBT Special Interest Group, a lifetime member of the Pambansang
Samahan ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino (National Association of Philippine
Psychology), and a member of the Council of Asian Association of
Women’s Studies.
For the past 30 years, she has been providing free counselling services
to women and LGBT survivors of violence.
Her areas of research interest are sexuality and development, political
and movement theories, sexual and reproductive health and rights,
feminist and LGBT psychology, violence against women, religious
fundamentalisms, universal healthcare, women and ICT.
viii
Reimagining global abortion politics
Acknowledgements
As a collective, the authors would like to express their heartfelt thanks
to all who made this book possible: those fighting for abortion rights,
whether as advocates or service providers, who have inspired us to
pursue our research interests. We are in awe of the risks many of you
take in order to save women’s lives and uphold women’s dignity. It is
your work that we wish to spotlight and honour in this book.
We also wish to thank colleagues who were sounding boards: Mara
Clarke, Deirdre Duffy, Marlene Gerber Fried, Rachel Monaghan,
Jennifer Thomson, Kellie O’Dowd, Marisa Viana, Katie Gillum,
Marge Berer, Stephen Bloomer, and Susan Yanow and also those who
provided time away from other responsibilities to allow us to dedicate
time and energy to the book. Particular thanks go Emma Campbell
who was not only a sounding board but also conducted a thorough
read-through of the final draft.
To those who were interviewed for the publication, we express our
thanks; we have huge respect for your work and are grateful for the
time you gave to us.
We would like to thank members of the ethics committee at Ulster
University who scrutinised the project plan for the publication and
provided ethical approval for the primary fieldwork.
Our thanks also go to the Gynuity Health Projects, for permitting
reproduction of the table ‘Countries where mifepristone is registered/
licensed’ and the ‘Global map of countries where Misoprostol is
approved’.
Finally, we would like to thank Emma Campbell, whose work
An Appropriate Hobby: Passport Butterfly Photos of Activists features on
the front cover of the book. Emma’s work can be found at www.
emmacampbell.co.uk
ix