Feminist Democratic Innovations as a Response to Anti-Abortion Attacks

Between May 20 and 23, 2025, joint sessions of workshops of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) took place at Charles University in Prague. At the workshop titled Gendering Democratic Resilience, Leja Markelj presented the paper ‘Feminist Responses to Anti-Abortion Attacks. Building Democratic Innovations in Contexts of De-Democratization’, co-authored with Anastasia Barone, Giada Bonu Rosenkranz, and Rok Smrdelj.

In this paper, the authors analyze feminist repertoires of action in the field of reproductive rights in Italy and Slovenia. Although the right to abortion remains legally guaranteed in both countries, it is increasingly threatened by indirect strategies of anti-gender movements, such as the spread of disinformation, systematic misuse of conscientious objection, and discriminatory practices within the healthcare system. The research shows that feminist movements in Italy and Slovenia enact democratic resilience not only through institutional engagement but also via informal forms of solidarity. In Italy, this is reflected in mapping institutions where doctors invoke conscientious objection and in accompanying women to healthcare facilities. In Slovenia, the emphasis lies on transnational solidarity, dissemination of reliable information, and the production of grassroots knowledge that addresses concrete barriers to accessing abortion.

The study was conducted within the framework of the international research project FIERCE, funded by the Horizon 2020 program.