HASn the United States, new blows against abortion are making headlines. Now that Republicans have taken over the legal system, after a carefully planned takeover, the Supreme Court is one step closer to criminalizing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion).
At the same time, from Hungary to Poland, from Germany to Denmark and from Russia to Serbia, mothers and their pretty white-skinned babies are smiling at us on expensive advertising posters praising motherhood and explicitly condemning motherhood. ‘abortion. In Europe, where legislation varies from country to country, the debate on reproductive rights is more focused on demographic decline. As a result, the European Commission has created a “demography” portfolio – with which it has entrusted Commissioner Dubravka Suica. Illiberal governments, on the other hand, put in place various family policy measures which favor marriage (married couples can, for example, benefit from joint loans in Hungary) and encourage the creation of children (parents are notably exempted from tax on returned to Hungary and Poland).
But why are reproductive rights attacked from all sides knowing that the number of abortions is constantly decreasing and that it is linked to social inequalities? In Hungary, where the social security system does not fund any contraception, several studies by the central statistics office show that abortion is the only affordable method of contraception for poor women, minors and women who already have several children. However, the Hungarian government’s new family policies are giving it strong electoral support, as seen in the April 3 general election. Illiberal governments have thus seized on social policies of redistribution, which were previously the preserve of the left.
Worldwide, attacks on reproductive rights are bringing together very different forces: conservative political movements, religious fundamentalists, illiberal pragmatists and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warmongers. . And there is much more at stake than abortion rights: the goal is to create a livable and desirable offer to oppose to liberal democracies for their supporters. Across the Atlantic, for example, Texas encourages family and neighbors to report any information they may learn about a possible abortion and also allows them to go to court to enforce the law, even if they are not themselves harmed. Thus, an illiberal legal element has been introduced into a liberal legal system.
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