ÖZP 2002/3  S.315-336

Edith Gindulis

PARTIES, VETOPLAYERS AND ABORTION POLITICS IN 22 DEMOCRACIES: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

This article focuses on abortion politics in 22 Western democracies. The empirical comparative analysis shows that there is a significant party impact on abortion policies. Countries which were ruled a long time by conservative parties produced more restrictive abortion laws than countries with a strong presence of left-wing parties in government. Moreover, in some countries the abortion policy is also influenced by direct democracy and constitutional courts. Surprisingly, the comparative analysis reveals also that there is no significant relationship between the level of socioeconomic development, denomination and abortion politics.