Women’s Right to Abortion: A Comparative Study of The United States and France

Abstract

This paper is a comparative examination of abortion rights in the United States and France, focusing on their contrasting socio-political, legal, and cultural landscapes. The U.S system highly polarized and shaped by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision initially guaranteeing abortion rights under the right to privacy. However, the recent 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling overturned Roe, returning abortion regulation to individual states and leading to a patchwork of restrictive and permissive laws a shift that intensified women's reproductive rights debates among religious and conservative movements. Contrastingly, France's Veil Law of 1975 legalized abortion marked a significant women’s reproductive autonomy. France has gradually expanded abortion access, with the legal limit extended to 14 weeks in 2022. The country's secularism approach as minimized the influence of religious ideologies on abortion policy, and feminist movements readily securing these rights. This comparative analysis establishes the impact of legal frameworks, political environments, and cultural contexts on women’s access to abortion services, implications for reproductive health, autonomy, and social justice.