Abstract Book of the 4th International Conference on LGBT Studies
Year: 2025
[PDF]
Between Law and Real Life: How Abortion Laws Fail and Pro-Choice Activism Struggles in Central and Eastern Europe
Mgr. Jolana Hošková
ABSTRACT:
This study explores the growing disconnect between abortion legislation and lived experiences in the Visegrád Four countries—Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia—where anti-gender movements have gained significant momentum. Drawing on ongoing doctoral research, the analysis combines a micro- and macro-perspective to interrogate both individual-level experiences of exclusion and broader systemic failures. At the micro level, the study asks which groups of people are left behind or actively disadvantaged by current abortion laws, and why these legal frameworks fail to serve them. The research applies an intersectional lens to uncover how marginalized identities intersect with restrictive reproductive policies, highlighting structural inequalities in access and support and how queer and reproductive rights overlap in this topic. At the macro level, the paper examines the dynamics that undermine progressive activism and enable the strategic success of anti-abortion and pro-life campaigns. Why are pro-choice movements struggling to gain traction, and what makes pro-life actors so effective in shaping public discourse and policy? Drawing on qualitative data and comparative fieldwork, this study argues that confronting both legal shortcomings and activist vulnerabilities is key to resisting the erosion of reproductive rights amid rising illiberalism in Central and Eastern Europe.
Keywords: bodily autonomy, pro-life, pro-choice, queer, reproductive rights