The Framing of Abortion in the Czech Republic: How the Continuity of Discourse Prevents Institutional Change

0355729 - SOÚ 2011 RIV CZ eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Dudová, Radka
The Framing of Abortion in the Czech Republic: How the Continuity of Discourse Prevents Institutional Change.
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review. Roč. 46, č. 6 (2010), s. 945-975. ISSN 0038-0288. E-ISSN 0038-0288
Výzkumný záměr: CEZ:AV0Z70280505
Klíčová slova: abortion policy * body discourse * frame analysis
Kód oboru RIV: AO - Sociologie, demografie
Impakt faktor: 0.389, rok: 2010

While explaining the continuity and change of abortion institutions in the former Czechoslovakia /Czech Republic, the article focuses on the framing of the debates that preceded the changes in abortion legislation in the Czech Republic since the 1950s. Discourse analysis of media and expert articles, parliamentary debates, and other documents shows that abortion in the Czech Republic was framed as a medical issue since the 1950s, not an issue of women’s rights or bodily citizenship. The effect of this medicalised discourse of abortion was the construction of a specific knowledge on abortion. In spite of existing alternative discourses, this original discourse now hinders the possibility of reframing abortion in terms of women’s reproductive rights and this is reflected in the status quo of the abortion legislation. The continuity of dominant discourse therefore reflects and reinforces the path-dependency of the institutions.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0194429