Table 3 National and external factors supporting or countering reform
From: Agenda setting and socially contentious policies: Ethiopia’s 2005 reform of its law on abortion
National | External | |
|---|---|---|
Actors | ||
Supportive government (ideology, precedents) disposed to resist external interference | Supporting | |
Active women's rights movement | Supporting | |
Mission-driven medical profession | Supporting | |
Ethiopian Orthodox Church and evangelical opposition | Countering | |
International NGO supporting reform | Supporting | |
Absence of global consensus on abortion law liberalization | Ambiguous | |
U.S. government opposition to reform (Mexico City policy) | Countering | |
Political opportunity structure | ||
“Open window”: opportunity of Penal Code reform (allied historical moment of democratization) | Supporting | |
“Open window”: successful momentum behind a broad agenda for improving women's status and well-being | Supporting | |
Pent-up popular expectation of policy and legal reform after overthrow of the Derg regime (“mood”) | Supporting | |
Religiously conservative population | Countering | |
Strategies | ||
Abortion law reform as part of a package of reforms to improve women's status | Supporting | |
Frame used: maternal mortality prevention/public health promotion—“women’s right to life” | Supporting | |
Material conditions | ||
High maternal mortality due to unsafe abortion and related research base | Supporting |