A Functionalist Approach to Comparative Abortion Law

Abstract

This chapter critiques the present comparative methodology in abortion law and explores the possibilities of a new comparative approach. The current method relies on high-­ profile but dated constitutional abortion decisions from the United States and Germany. Courts continue to rely on these cases to justify their decisions as consistent with a modern, global convergence around women’s rights and to minimize national resistance to contested law reform. These comparisons, however, oversimplify legal developments of the past forty years by focusing on constitutional norms and legislative regimes, rather than on the relationship between abortion law and practice.