Anti-abortion activism in Catholic Europe (1970s–present)

By examining the histories of anti-abortion activism in Belgium, Ireland, Poland, and Spain, the special issue ‘Anti-abortion activism in Catholic Europe (1970s–present)’ reorients away from the principal focus of most research on ‘pro-life’ activism: in historical scholarship, the United States undoubtedly stands as the geographic and symbolic center of the global ‘pro-life’ movement. The contributions to this special issue explore contemporary histories of anti-abortion activisms in four European countries with diverse political regimes, in which the majority of citizens are Catholic and the Catholic Church exerts extensive political and social influence. After summarizing existing literature on the history of ‘pro-life’ movements, we discuss the main analytical lenses that have informed this collection: gender and generation. We also reflect on gaps in the literature, source availability, and methodological issues that arise when constructing the ‘anti-abortion’ archive, before outlining the contributions to this special issue.