Fighting For Abortion Rights In Latin America

Although they share similar socio-economic and cultural characteristics as well as their recent political histories, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay differ radically in their abortion policies. In this book, Cora Fernández Anderson examines the role social movements play in abortion reform to show how different interaction patterns with state actors have led to three different policy outcomes: comprehensive abortion reform in Uruguay; moderate abortion reform in Chile; and no legal abortion reform in Argentina. Synthesizing a broad range of literature and drawing on in-depth field and archival research, she analyzes the strength of the campaigns for abortion reform, their relationships with leftist parties in power and the context of Church–state relations to explain this diverging trajectory in policy reform. A masterly analysis of how social movements, the power of institutions and Executive preferences have strong explanatory power, Fighting for Abortion Rights in Latin America is a perfect supplement for classes on gender and global politics.

Abortion and Democracy offers critical analyses of abortion politics in Latin America’s Southern Cone, with lessons and insights of wider significance. Drawing on the region’s recent history of military dictatorship and democratic transition, this edited volume explores how abortion rights demands fit with current democratic agendas. With a focus on Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, the book’s contributors delve into the complex reality of abortion through the examination of the discourses, strategies, successes, and challenges of abortion rights movements. Assembling a multiplicity of voices and experiences, the contributions illuminate key dimensions of abortion rights struggles: health aspects, litigation efforts, legislative debates, party politics, digital strategies, grassroots mobilization, coalition-building, affective and artistic components, and movement-countermovement dynamics. The book takes an approach that is sensitive to social inequalities and to the transnational aspects of abortion rights struggles in each country. It bridges different scales of analysis, from abortion experiences at the micro level of the clinic or the home to the macro sociopolitical and cultural forces that shape individual lives. This is an important intervention suitable for students and scholars of abortion politics, democracy in Latin America, gender and sexuality, and women’s rights.

In this hard-hitting timely book Judith Orr, leading pro-choice campaigner, argues that it’s time women had the right to control their fertility without the practical, legal and ideological barriers they have faced for generations. Donald Trump’s presidency threatens abortion rights within the US and his global gag affects women worldwide today – 47,000 women die annually from illegal abortions. In Britain, anti-abortion campaigners attack women’s rights under existing law. Elsewhere, women cross borders or buy pills online. In the US, Ireland, Poland and Latin America restrictions on abortion have provoked mass resistance, Combining analysis of statistics, popular culture and social attitudes with powerful first-hand accounts of women’s experiences and a history of women’s attempts to control their bodies, the author shows that despite the 1967 Abortion Act full reproductive rights in Britain are yet to be won. The book also highlights current debates over decriminalisation and argues for abortion provision fit for the 21st century.

With Latin America home to some of the most draconian bans on abortion in the world, abortion rights is one of the most controversial and hotly contested topics in Latin American politics today. Jane Marcus-Delgado explores the ways in which key actors--from politicians to grassroots activists to the global community--participate and shape strategies in the ongoing debate. Marcus-Delgado sheds new light on the dire situation of Latin American women facing unwanted pregnancies, and on the interactions between the state and its most vulnerable members of society.

"This new and original study by Ligia Castaldi is the first major publication to analyze in detail the abortion laws of the Latin American and Caribbean nations that are parties to the American Convention on Human Rights. Making use of a broad range of materials relating to human rights and abortion law that are not yet available in English, the first part of this book analyzes how Inter-American human rights bodies have interpreted the American Convention's prenatal right to life. The second part examines Article 4(1) of the American Convention, setting forth a comparative analysis of the laws regarding prenatal rights and abortion in all twenty-three nations that are parties to this treaty. Castaldi questions how Inter-American human rights bodies currently interpret Article (4)1. Against the predominant view, she argues that the purpose of this treaty is to grant legal protection of the unborn child from elective abortion that is broad and general, not merely exceptional. Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean offers an objective analysis of national and international laws on abortion that presents much valuable information about these laws for the first time in English. Castaldi proposes a new interpretation of the American Convention's right to life provision that is nonrestrictive and provides general protection for the unborn. The book will appeal not only to students and scholars in the field of international human rights but also to human rights advocates more generally"--

The past decade has seen sweeping changes in terms of reproductive rights in Latin America. Argentina and Uruguay have fully legalized abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. Some countries, like Chile, have loosened restrictions; others like El Salvador, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic have maintained or even tightened some of the most punitive abortion laws in the world. Abortion rights even vary within countries-in Mexico, the practice has been fully legal in certain states, and punishable with jail time in others. This Element explains how feminist social movements have transformed the politics of abortion in Latin America.

With Latin America home to some of the most draconian bans on abortion in the world, abortion rights are one of the most controversial and hotly-contested topics in Latin American politics today. Jane Marcus-Delgado explores the ways in which key actors - from politicians to grassroots activists to the global community - participate and shape strategies in the ongoing debate. Marcus-Delgado sheds new light on the dire situation of Latin American women facing unwanted pregnancies, and on the interactions between the state and its most vulnerable members of society.

With stories from the front lines, a legal scholar journeys through distinct legal climates to understand precisely why and how the war over abortion is being fought. Drawing on her years of research in El Salvador—one of the few countries to ban abortion without exception—legal scholar Michelle Oberman explores what happens when abortion is a crime. Oberman reveals the practical challenges raised by a thriving black market in abortion drugs, as well as the legal challenges to law enforcement. She describes a system in which doctors and lawyers collaborate in order to identify and prosecute those suspected of abortion-related crimes, and the troubling results of such collaboration: mistaken diagnoses, selective enforcement, and wrongful convictions. Equipped with this understanding, Oberman turns her attention to the United States, where the battle over abortion is fought almost exclusively in legislatures and courtrooms. Beginning in Oklahoma, one of the most pro-life states, and through interviews with current and former legislators and activists, she shows how Americans voice their moral opposition to abortion by supporting laws that would restrict it. In this America, the law is more a symbol than a plan. Oberman challenges this vision of the law by considering the practical impact of legislation and policies governing both motherhood and abortion. Using stories gathered from crisis pregnancy centers and abortion clinics, she unmasks the ways in which the law already shapes women’s responses to unplanned pregnancy, generating incentives or penalties, nudging pregnant women in one direction or another. In an era in which every election cycle features a pitched battle over abortion’s legality, Oberman uses her research to expose the limited ways in which making abortion a crime matters. Her insight into the practical consequences that will ensue if states are permitted to criminalize abortion calls attention to the naïve and misguided nature of contemporary struggles over abortion’s legality. A fresh look at the battle over abortion law, Her Body, Our Laws is an invitation to those on all sides of the issue to move beyond the incomplete discourse about legality by understanding how the law actually matters.