Right-wing legal mobilisation against reproductive rights

This article explores right-wing legal mobilisation conducted by conservative and religious actors against reproductive rights, analysing their legal strategies, the context in which they are used, and the conditions in which they become impactful. It shifts scholarly attention from governments to non-state actors, their interrelations, and their transnational network. Using the Polish Constitutional Court's abortion restriction as a case study, it frames Poland as a paradigmatic example of a broader European and global pattern in which right-wing actors deploy tools and institutions designed to protect and expand rights and freedoms in order to restrict them. Such mobilisation has been facilitated primarily through the strategic appropriation of the language and tactics of human rights advocacy, the transnational transfer of legal know-how, strategies and tactics, and the mutual reinforcement that occurs within conservative legal networks, combined with a readiness to act in moments of democratic fragility.