COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF ABORTION IN IRELAND, POLAND, AND THE UNITED-STATES

Abortion is a gendered concept in modern society, and its arbitrary or partial denial to, or enforcement upon, women is a mark of their second-class citizenship in western industrialized nations purporting to be democratic. Therefore, state and cultural abortion policies as different as those in Ireland, Poland, and the United States reveal a common gendered pattern of male dominance over women's sexuality and reproductive capacities. This article argues that none of the existing theories about the state, civil, or free societies provides adequate models explaining women's second-class citizenship as it relates to abortion or for ending that status. In part, this is because reproduction is considered the primary reason for traditional female subordination by state or in the family. At the same time, feminists have not generally advanced their own claims to abortion in terms of citizenship or human rights in any of these countries. Instead, they have asserted their right to be voluntary rather than involuntary mothers - an argument that does little to advance the standard view of all women as potential ''carrying'' vessels or ''walking wombs'' performing a state, religious, or societal function that they cannot be entirely trusted to determine for themselves. Abortion must be separated from stereotypical notions of motherhood and placed in the broader context of female sexuality, citizenship, and human rights. More cross-boundary dialogue about the common backlash forces at work in Ireland, Poland, and the United States is in order because feminism is not simply about abortion, and abortion, as it turns out, is not simply about abortion.