The possible far-right threat toward abortion rights and human development in the West : A qualitative desk study 

Sammanfattning: The Supreme Court of the United States’ decision to reclaim the constitutional right to carry out an abortion in 2022, was founded in a far-right politician's agenda. Considering recent developments in Western countries in Europe, far-right political parties have increased their power during the 2010s until present time. With this thesis, the aim was to review far-right European politicians’ abortion policies on national and EU-level, to be able to present whether a threat towards abortion rights and thus human development could be seen in Europe as well. The human development approach was the theoretical framework used to analyze the findings in this thesis. This framework helped understand in what ways anti abortion policies oppose different types of freedom and general goals in society, and how this affects well-being, agency and justice. The research was carried out through a qualitative desk study with a deductive element, by presenting data in forms of results of roll-call votes in the European Parliament, party programmes and agendas, and other official documents. The results and analysis showed that the reviewed politicians and parties conduct policies against abortion rights at both national and EU-level, which drew the conclusion that tendencies of a threat toward human development in the West were found.