Abortion Lawfare: Struggles in Latin America and Europe

Feminist legal mobilization and abortion lawfare in Latin America: A comparative perspective of new uses of law in liberalizing struggles.

Abortion rights have been a terrain of multiple struggles for the Latin American women’s movement. In the last fifteen years, such struggles have increasingly incorporated the use of law in a process of juridification that reflects a more complex perspective on the legal arguments and tools to achieve liberalization. Through a comparative overview of legalized liberalizing events in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, México, Perú and Uruguay, our study shows, in the first place, how feminist legal mobilization has diversified the sites of contention for the adoption of new regulatory framework deploying a broad array of legalized demands and tactics before legislative bodies, courts, administrative fora, as well as realms of social dispute outside the state. Secondly, our research suggests that the moderate pro-liberalization successes achieved in terms of legal reforms in these seven countries through these new uses of the law result out of the juridification of the work of regional feminist networks as well as the development of new legal support structures connecting the experiences of local and transnational legal advocates and their organizations.

Paola Bergallo
(Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) and
Camila Gianella
(CMI/UiB) will present findings of the research project “Abortion Rights Lawfare in Latin America” and
Elzbieta Kurdziel
will follow up with reflections on the recent protests against more restrictions on abortion laws in Poland. The discussion will be mediated by
Bruce Wilson
(University of Central Florida/CMI).

This event is organized by
Centre on Law & Social Transformation.

Welcome!

Photo: Zula Lucero / Flickr