When the private becomes political: the politics of having children

In my book I examine how political ideology on abortion – expressed in the Hungarian abortion debate of 2010-2012 – impacts the distribution of related resources and how this distribution in turn effects that ideology. To understand the interaction of abortion practice and policy I utilize a multilayered analysis utilizing a biopolitical and a feminist approach and viewing the issue on a national and international level as well. Through a biopolitical analysis I argue that in the abortion debate women are configured as mothers primarily reproductive citizens responsible for reproducing the nation. Abortion as an issue isn’t a literal issue but serves as a subject through which the state legitimizes itself as having the authority of defining public friends and enemies. In my second approach I examine the interaction of contemporary Hungarian ideologies on abortion policy and abortion practice and the disconnect between these elements.