The factors influencing the trajectory of Danish abortion law: From progressive to 50 years of stagnation

Abstract

In 1973, Denmark broke new ground when it introduced abortion as a legal right. We explore the drivers of Danish abortion law reform and demonstrate that liberalization was effectuated as the answer to a number of societal concerns. In observing the absence of autonomy as a winning argument for abortion law reform, we find that the Danish case is in alignment with the existing literature. Moreover, this article contributes to the understanding of how the historical drivers affect modern-day issues in abortion, including the fact that expansive autonomy for women is still not prioritized. Thus, we argue that liberalizing abortion regulation for reasons other than achieving reproductive autonomy comes at a price: downstream, it becomes difficult to achieve full autonomy in health law regulation because the initial reasoning behind liberalization continues to provide a certain framing even for present-day abortion issues. This observation can be of importance for those working in other jurisdictions to implement expansive autonomy in reproductive rights.