The Transnational Antiabortion Movement in the 1980s

The antiabortion movement in the United States faced constant frustration in the 1980s as it failed to deliver tangible victories in Congress or in the courts. One of its very few victories in the decade occurred in the international arena, when the US delegation at the 1984 International Conference on Population in Mexico City announced what became known as the “Mexico City policy” or the “Global gag rule”: a ban on funding to international agencies who perform or counsel abortions. Why did the antiabortion movement succeed in the international arena at a time when it proved unable to make headway in the United States? This paper argues that the transnational connections of the American antiabortion movement made the Mexico City policy possible. An array of allies shared data, expertise, and strategies with one another across borders. The paper follows the US organizer Judie Brown from passing out antiabortion leaflets in Southern California in her youth to her pivotal role in the global Catholic antiabortion movement, which stretched from Australia to Latin America, from the Vatican to the United Nations. The exchange of ideas through the transnational network shaped the strategies of Americans, who armed themselves with criticism of US foreign aid from the Third World and coordinated strategies with foreign allies at the UN. As the example of Brown shows, the antiabortion movement was a deeply cosmopolitan experience for many activists, whose international connections shaped their work and, on occasion, their political victories.