It's Time to Talk About Abortion: Shame, Fiction, and Legislative Change in Western Europe

While the breaking of silence on abortion is generally attributed to feminist mobilization, this essay argues that the popularization of female-centered narratives in the 1960s and 1970s contributed to a culture shift which played a crucial role in the legalization of abortion in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Depicting individual experiences of abortion through stories of women facing unplanned pregnancy and struggling to speak out, these narratives were instrumental in sparking national conversations. While earlier works highlighted the use of euphemistic language in everyday life, narratives from the 1960s and 1970s turned to explicit dialogues, thereby displaying discursive strategies to overcome abortion shame.