This paper focuses on the legality of abortion as a case of international norms contestation. Women’s rights have gained recognition as a globally relevant matter; sexual and reproductive rights, however,remain controversial.
Few issues are as highly contested as the legality of abortion: there is no global consensus on what its precise legal status ought to be, or what should states’ role be in relation to abortion. International legal documents from the United Nations and Inter-American Rights systems are easily interpreted and invoked by advocates on both “sides” of the debate as promoting or opposing legal abortion. Advocates, in local and global forums, display widely differing –and often, fundamentally incompatible –normative viewpoints.