Alienated Human Rights? Comparative Insights from a Study of Abortion Debates in Poland and Argentina

Are human rights a part of everyday experience? Have they found a way into ordinary legal consciousness? And, if so, have they remained a vital part of it? In our study of abortion debates in Poland and Argentina, we have analyzed the attitudes towards human rights of social activists active in abortion debates based on individual and focus group interviews conducted in both countries the years 2023 and 2024. My talk presents initial findings on the alienation of human rights as reflected in the data, and discusses the explanatory hypothesis connecting legal alienation to the mode of constructing what is perceived as a viable argument in political debates concerning abortion.