Right to Life or Right to Choose: A Comparative Framing Analysis of Rights and Abortion by Three Advocacy Organisations in Europe
Author
Lund-Thomsen, Kirsten Santiago
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2026
Abstract
This thesis investigates how three legal advocacy organisations – the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI), and the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) – interpret and mobilise human rights in their legal and political framing of abortion in a European context. Starting from the observation that human rights language is increasingly deployed both to advance and to restrict the rights of women, LGBT+ people and racial minorities, the study analyses organisation‑produced news articles on abortion, rights and European institutions (including the EU and the European Court of Human Rights) from 2022–2023. Methodologically, it combines media framing analysis with the “rights as weapons” framework and a reproductive justice perspective to identify and compare the interpretive frames used by the organisations. The analysis identifies five distinct frames: two used by CRR and three used by ADFI and ECLJ. In CRR’s frames, limited access to abortion is consistently defined as a human rights violation, particularly due to negative health consequences and infringements on bodily autonomy. In contrast, ADFI and ECLJ frame abortion itself as a human rights violation based on the attribution of personhood to the fetus and by portraying abortion as a discriminatory and “eugenic” practice. All three organisations invoke the notion of universal human rights but reach very different conclusions about abortion. The thesis demonstrates how competing interpretations of rights shape the debate on abortion and can be used both to expand and to curtail reproductive rights in Europe, and it highlights the strategies the organisations use to (dis)engage with each other’s frames within the broader contest over European abortion rights.
Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan tre juridiske interesseorganisationer – Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI) og European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) – fortolker og bruger menneskerettigheder i deres politiske og juridiske indramning af abort i en europæisk kontekst. Med udgangspunkt i, at menneskerettighedssprog i stigende grad anvendes både til at fremme og til at begrænse kvinders, LGBT+‑personers og minoriteters rettigheder, analyserer specialet organisationsproducerede nyhedsartikler om abort, rettigheder og europæiske institutioner (bl.a. EU og Den Europæiske Menneskerettighedsdomstol) fra 2022–2023. Metodisk kombineres medieframinganalyse med teorien om “rights as weapons” og et reproduktivt retfærdighedsperspektiv for at identificere og sammenligne de fortolkningsrammer, som organisationerne anvender. Analysen identificerer fem markante frames: to hos CRR og tre hos ADFI og ECLJ. I CRR’s frames forstås mangelfuld adgang til abort som et menneskerettighedsproblem, især begrundet i sundhedskonsekvenser og retten til kropslig autonomi. Hos ADFI og ECLJ fremstilles abort derimod som en krænkelse af retten til liv med udgangspunkt i fostrets personstatus samt som en diskriminerende og “eugenisk” praksis. Alle tre organisationer trækker på forestillingen om universelle menneskerettigheder, men når vidt forskellige konklusioner om abort. Specialet viser dermed, hvordan konkurrerende rettighedsfortolkninger former debatten om abort og kan bruges til både at udvide og indskrænke reproduktive rettigheder i Europa, samt belyser de strategier, organisationerne anvender for at (ikke) indgå i hinandens rammer i den bredere kamp om europæiske abortrettigheder.
[This abstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]