In this paper we critically examine the inequalities produced by legal time restrictions for abortion care in the form of gestational age (GA) limits.
Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected during a 6-year multi-disciplinary European research project funded by the European Research Council (BAR2LEGAB), we illustrate the impact of GA limits for abortion on request or on broad grounds on pregnant people from European countries where abortion is legal, which force thousands of them to travel across borders to seek abortion care, delaying access to care, and increasing their health risks. During ‘normal’ times, this phenomenon generally remains hidden, but the recent pandemic’s barriers to travel highlighted the marginalization of abortion care within national health systems and their malfunction when pregnant people exceeding the legal GA limit are dropped from the national healthcare.
Abortion access is central to gender equality, human rights, and social justice, and is fundamental in primary healthcare provision, yet GA restrictions built on medical knowledge and practices are established in all European countries’ legislations since 1960s. GA limits frame abortion as transgressive, with motherhood as the norm, and imply that the embryo/fetus, constructed as a social being needing protection, progressively acquires rights throughout pregnancy. We argue that this legal framework generates ‘inequality by legislative design’, and equitable access to reproductive justice is impossible for people facing GA limits to abortion care, which deepen existing social and gender inequalities. Finally, we illustrate the importance of internet and of key social agents (partners, relatives, pro-choice health professionals, and family planning organization) for information seeking on abortion care and for overcoming time restrictions.
