Norm Spoiling and Backlash: Women’s Rights at Risk at the UN

This chapter analyses the backlash against the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda by examining how norm spoilers in the UN context challenge women’s rights and gender equality. Current opposition to abortion rights provides a critical case for exploring interactions between norm spoilers and defenders, their tactics and their effects. Drawing on feminist critical discourse analysis, the chapter shows how conservative actors employ counter-discourses and practices to weaken gender norms surrounding abortion rights and bodily autonomy. Empirical attention is given to the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Rights and Strengthening the Family, championed by conservative UN member states as a focal point of anti-abortion mobilization. The analysis highlights how abortion access is central to the WPS framework.