Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:35:11.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Feminist Mobilization and the Abortion Debate in Latin America: Lessons from Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2021

Mariela Daby Open the ORCID record for Mariela Daby [Opens in a new window]  and
Mason W. Moseley Open the ORCID record for Mason W. Moseley [Opens in a new window]
Mariela Daby
Affiliation:
Reed College
Mason W. Moseley
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When Argentine president Mauricio Macri announced in March 2018 that he supported a “responsible and mature” national debate regarding the decriminalization of abortion, it took many by surprise. In a Catholic country with a center-right government, where public opinion regarding abortion had hardly moved in decades—why would the abortion debate surface in Argentina when it did? Our answer is grounded in the social movements literature, as we argue that the organizational framework necessary for growing the decriminalization movement had already been built by an emergent feminist movement of unprecedented scope and influence: Ni Una Menos. By expanding the movement's social justice frame from gender violence to encompass abortion rights, feminist activists were able to change public opinion and expand the scope of debate, making salient an issue that had long been politically untouchable. We marshal evidence from multiple surveys carried out before, during, and after the abortion debate and in-depth interviews to shed light on the sources of abortion rights movements in unlikely contexts.

Keywords

AbortionLatin AmericaArgentinaabortion legalizationfeminist social movementsprotest
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 359 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The authors thank Ernesto Calvo, Jennifer Piscopo, and four anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. Participants in a panel at the 2019 Midwest Political Science Association Conference also provided valuable feedback. Replication data are available at https://www.marieladaby.com/publications.

References

REFERENCES

Alcaraz, María Florencia. 2018. Qué Sea Ley! La Lucha de Los Feminismos Por El Aborto Legal [Legalize it! The feminist fight for legal abortion]. Buenos Aires: Marea Editorial.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Aruguete, Natalia, and Calvo, Ernesto. 2020. Odiar las Redes: Información, Polarización y Conflicto en las Redes Sociales [Hating the networks: Information, polarization and conflict in social networks]. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores.Google Scholar
Auyero, Javier. 2007. Routine Politics and Collective Violence in Argentina. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benford, Robert D., and Snow, David A.. 2000. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 26: 611–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blofield, Merike. 2013. The Politics of Moral Sin: Abortion and Divorce in Spain, Chile and Argentina. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blofield, Merike, and Ewig, Christina. 2017. “The Left Turn and Abortion Politics in Latin America.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 24 (4): 481–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blofield, Merike, Ewig, Christina, and Piscopo, Jennifer M.. 2017. “The Reactive Left: Gender Equality and the Latin American Pink Tide.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 24 (4): 345–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braslavsky, Guido. 2018. “Macri dio luz verde para que se abra el debate sobre el aborto en el Congreso” [Macri gives the green light to open the abortion debate in Congress]. Clarín, February 23.Google Scholar
Buscaglia, Teresa Sofía. 2015. “#NiUnaMenos: sin banderías, una sola consigna será el clamor de todos” [#NiUnaMenos: Without factions, one slogan serves as a rallying cry for all]. La Nación, June 3. https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/niunamenos-sin-banderias-una-sola-consigna-sera-el-clamor-de-todos-nid1798279 (accessed May 5, 2020).Google Scholar
Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales [Center for Legal and Social Studies]. 2017. “Derechos humanos en la Argentina: Informe 2017” [Human rights in Argentine: 2017 report]. November 23. https://www.cels.org.ar/web/publicaciones/derechos-humanos-en-la-argentina-informe-2017/ (accessed May 13, 2020).Google Scholar
Cohen, Mollie J., and Evans, Claire Q.. 2018. “Latin American Views on Abortion in the Shadow of the Zika Epidemic.” Topical Brief 033, Latin American Public Opinion Project: Insight Series. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/ITB033en.pdf (accessed May 5, 2020).Google Scholar
Della Porta, D, and M, Diani. 2020. Social Movements: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Español, CNN. 2019. “Aumentan los feminicidios en Argentina: solo en enero de 2019 se registraron 27 crímenes contra mujeres” [Femicides increase in Argentina: In January of 2019 alone there were 27 registered crimes against women]. February 4. https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2019/02/04/aumentan-los-feminicidios-en-argentina-solo-en-enero-de-2019-se-registraron-27-crimenes-contra-mujeres/ (accessed May 5, 2020).Google Scholar
Fernandez Anderson, Cora. 2017. “Decriminalizing Abortion in Uruguay: Women's Movements, Secularism, and Political Allies.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy 38 (2): 221–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferree, Myra Marx. 2003. “Resonance and Radicalism: Feminist Framing in the Abortion Debates of the United States and Germany.” American Journal of Sociology 109 (2): 304–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garay, Candelaria. 2016. Social Policy Expansion in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Handcock, Mark S., and Gile, Krista J.. 2011. “Comment: On the Concept of Snowball Sampling.” Sociological Methodology 41 (1): 367–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Htun, Mala. 2003. Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ini, Candela. 2018. “Aborto: finalmente Macri pidió que se abra el debate” [Abortion: Finally, Macri requests to open the debate]. La Nacíon, March 2. https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/aborto-finalmente-macri-pidio-que-se-abra-el-debate-nid2113431 (accessed May 5, 2020).Google Scholar
Jenkins, Craig. 1983. “Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 9: 527–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreitzer, Rebecca J. 2015. “Politics and Morality in State Abortion Policy.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 15 (1): 41–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). 2004–19. “AmericasBarometer Survey.” www.lapopsurveys.org .Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Murillo, María Victoria. 2005. “Theorizing about Weak Institutions: Lessons from the Argentine Case.” In Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness, eds. Levitsky, Steven and Murillo, María Victoria. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 269–90.Google Scholar
Lopreite, Debora. 2012. “Travelling Ideas and Domestic Policy Change: The Transnational Politics of Reproductive Rights/Health in Argentina.” Global Social Policy 12 (2): 109–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopreite, Debora. 2014. “Explaining Policy Outcomes in Federal Contexts: The Politics of Reproductive Rights in Argentina and Mexico.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 33 (4): 389–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loscher, Damian. 2018. “‘Irish Times’ Poll: Clear Shift in Attitude Abortion since 2013.” Irish Times, April 20. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/irish-times-poll-clear-shift-in-attitude-to-abortion-since-2013-1.3467547 (accessed May 5, 2020).Google Scholar
Machado, Fabiana, Scartascini, Carlos, and Tommasi, Mariano. 2011. “Political Institutions and Street Protests in Latin America.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 55 (3): 340–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mangonnet, Jorge, and Murillo, Victoria. 2020. “Protests of Abundance: Distributive Conflict over Agricultural Rents During the Commodities Boom in Argentina, 2003–2013.” Comparative Political Studies. 53 (8): 1223–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, Douglas. 2017. “Social Movement Theory and the Prospects for Climate Change Activism in the United States.” Annual Review of Political Science 20: 189–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, John D., and Zald, Mayer N.. 1977. “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory.” American Journal of Sociology 82 (6): 1212–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgenstern, Ana P. 2012. “Morality and Contentious Politics in Latin America: Abortion and LGBT Rights in Argentina and Mexico.” PhD diss., University of Miami.Google Scholar
Moseley, Mason W. 2018. Protest State: The Rise of Everyday Contention in Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noy, Chaim. 2008. “Sampling Knowledge: The Hermeneutics of Snowball Sampling in Qualitative Research.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 11 (4): 327–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedriana, Nicholas. 2006. “From Protective to Equal Treatment: Legal Framing Processes and Transformation of the Women's Movement in the 1960s.” American Journal of Sociology 111 (6): 1718–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peker, Luciana. 2019. La Revolución De Las Hijas [Revolution of the daughters]. Buenos Aires: Paidós.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2014. “Religion in Latin America: Widespread Change in a Historically Catholic Region.” November 13. https://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/religion-in-latin-america/ (accessed May 5, 2020).Google Scholar
Piscopo, Jennifer M. 2014. “Female Leadership and Sexual Health Policy in Argentina.” Latin American Research Review 49 (1): 104–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruibal, Alba. 2018. “Federalism, Two-Level Games and the Politics of Abortion Rights Implementation in Subnational Argentina.” Reproductive Health Matters 26 (54): 137–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruibal, Alba, and Anderson, Cora Fernandez. 2018. “Legal Obstacles and Social Change: Strategies of the Abortion Rights Movement in Argentina.” Politics, Groups, and Identities. Published online November 8. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2018.1541418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, Susheela, Remez, Lisa, Sedgh, Gilda, Kwok, Lorraine, and Onda, Tsuyoshi. 2018. “Abortion Worldwide 2017: Uneven Progress and Unequal Access.” Guttmacher Institute, March. https://www.guttmacher.org/report/abortion-worldwide-2017 (accessed May 13, 2020).Google Scholar
Snow, David A. 2013. “Framing and Social Movements.” In The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, eds. Snow, David A., della Porta, Donatella, Klandermans, Bert, and McAdam, Doug. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 470–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, David A., and Benford, Robert D.. 1988. “Ideology, Frame Resonance, and Participant Mobilization.” International Social Movement Research 1 (1): 197–217.Google Scholar
Sutton, Barbara, and Borland, Elizabeth. 2013. “Framing Abortion Rights in Argentina's Encuentros Nacionales de Mujeres.” Feminist Studies 39 (1): 194–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabbush, Constanza, Díaz, María Constanza, Trebisacce, Catalina, and Keller, Victoria. 2016. “Gay Marriage, Gender Identity and the Right to Abortion in Argentina.” Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad (Rio de Janeiro), no. 22: 22–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney, and Tilly, Charles. 2007. “Contentious Politics and Social Movements.” In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, eds. Boix, Carles and Stokes, Susan C.. New York: Oxford University Press, 435–60.Google Scholar
Terzian, Polly. 2017. “The Ni Una Menos Movement in 21st Century Argentina: Combating More than Femicide.” Honor's thesis, Dickinson College.Google Scholar
Uranga, Mercedes. 2018. “Quienés son y qué dicen las referentes de las principales agrupaciones feministas” [Who are the leaders of the feminist movement, and what do they have to say]. La Nacíon, March 31. https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/quienes-son-y-que-dicen-las-referentes-de-las-principales-agrupaciones-feministas-de-hoy-nid2118535 (accessed May 5, 2020).Google Scholar
Zald, Mayer N., and Ash, Roberta. 1966. “Social Movement Organizations: Growth, Decay and Change.” Social Forces 44 (3): 327–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar