Speaker Series: Mugambi Jouet

Why is abortion being recriminalized in the United States in sharp contrast to the historical evolution of reproductive rights? This presentation will explore how abortion exemplifies American exceptionalism in the original sense of the phrase that America is an “exception,” especially within the Western world. Yet exceptionalism should not be misunderstood as historical determinism or cultural essentialism. By the early 1970s, America was converging with peer Western democracies in liberalizing abortion. This process of convergence was ultimately halted by the mounting influence of the U.S. pro-life movement in an age when tolerance or support for reproductive rights increasingly became the norm abroad.

While abortion is often analyzed in isolation, this multidisciplinary article focuses on its interrelationship with wider features of American exceptionalism. A distinctive religious landscape sheds light on the intensity of opposition to abortion among the substantial minority of Americans who share a traditionalist worldview. This unique social environment has contributed to the resilience of the U.S. anti-abortion movement, which has an outsized impact due to the exceptional weight of lobbying by special interests over American government. Organized opposition to abortion instead declined elsewhere in the West concurrently with the decline of organized religion, especially traditionalist conceptions of Christianity. Modern America is now an outlier, refighting and relitigating an endless battle over abortion.

To register, contact Sophie Kofman at skofman@abfn.org. 

Mugambi Jouet’s research focuses on American exceptionalism, criminal justice, and comparative history from a multidisciplinary perspective. He is an expert on the distinctive historical evolution of American law, government, and sociopolitical culture compared to other Western democracies.

His scholarship has notably analyzed the death penalty, mass incarceration, juvenile justice, guns, abortion, and the historiography of key concepts, from “American exceptionalism” to the “Western world.” In 2022, he won the Brophy Prize for the article that “most significantly breaks new ground and adds new insights to the study and understanding of United States legal history.” In 2025, he received the William A. Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award.