THE PROCESS OF POLITICIZATION OF ABORTION IN BRAZIL

Resumen

Since the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1980s, the mobilization of the feminist movement has played a central role in the politicization of women’s reproductive rights and more specifically of the question of abortion. In that same period, conservative actors, particularly those linked to Catholic and Evangelical churches, have set up a strong resistance to the liberalization of the interruption of pregnancy. This opposition has increased in the last few years. This article examines the dialectic relationship between the feminist movement and the conservative countermovement to highlight the main political dynamics of the struggle for the liberalization of women’s reproductive rights. The article argues that, despite the emergence and intense activity of a feminist movement operating at the national and international levels, as well as the existence of a lively public debate on abortion, the activity of a strongly organized conservative-religious countermovement that benefitted from the political institutional framework in Brazil imposed obstacles to the decriminalization of abortion, even though a few opportunities remain for a relative liberalization. The first two parts of the article analyze the emergence andthe impacts of the feminist movement, as well as the relation between
religion and politics since the 1980s in Brazil. This backdrop helps explain
the state of reproductive rights in Brazil and allows for the examination of
the process of politicization of abortion in different institutional spaces.
The conclusion looks at recent challenges regarding sexual and reproductive
rights following the fall of Workers’ Party (PT) governments and the resurgence
of the right.